The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate AristocracyBerrett-Koehler Publishers, 09.01.2003 - 290 Seiten Why “wealth bias” is a holdover from a pre-democratic past—and how to restore a healthier balance of power: “Thought-provoking . . . well-documented and readable.” —Library Journal Wealth inequality, corporate welfare, and industrial pollution are symptoms—the fevers and chills of the economy. The underlying illness, says Business Ethics magazine founder Marjorie Kelly, is shareholder primacy: the corporate drive to make profits for shareholders no matter who pays the cost. In The Divine Right of Capital, Kelly argues that focusing on the interests of stockholders to the exclusion of everyone else’s interests is a form of discrimination based on property or wealth. She shows how this bias is held by our institutional structures, much as they once held biases against African Americans and women. The Divine Right of Capital exposes six aristocratic principles that corporations are built on, principles that we would never accept in our modern democratic society but which we accept unquestioningly in our economy. Wealth bias is a holdover from our pre-democratic past. It has enabled shareholders to become a kind of economic aristocracy. Kelly shows how to design more equitable alternatives—new property rights, new forms of corporate governance, new ways of looking at corporate performance—that build on both free-market and democratic principles. We think of shareholder primacy as the natural law of the free market, much as our forebears thought of monarchy as the most natural form of government. But in The Divine Right of Capital, Kelly brilliantly demonstrates that it is no more “natural” than any other human creation. People designed this system and people can change it. We need a change of mind as profound as that of the American Revolution—and this book provides practical guidance to help employees and communities change corporate governance and unfetter the genius of the free market. |
Inhalt
The Sacred Texts | |
The Corporation as Feudal Estate | |
Only the Propertied Class Votes | |
Liberty for Me Not for Thee | |
Wealth Reigns | |
Waking | |
Emerging Property Rights | |
Protecting the Common Welfare | |
New Citizens in Corporate Governance | |
Corporations Are Not Persons | |
A Little Rebellion | |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy Marjorie Kelly Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2001 |
The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy Marjorie Kelly Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2003 |
The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy Marjorie Kelly Keine Leseprobe verfügbar - 2015 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Amendment American Revolution aristocracy assets Berle Berrett-Koehler billion Business Ethics campaign finance reform CEOs chapter cited claim concept Constitution contract corporate governance corporate law corporate welfare create democratic directors divine right earnings economic democracy economic sovereignty Ellerman employee income employee ownership Enron environmental equity federal feudal fiduciary duty financial statements firms free market funds gains hostile takeover human ideas interests investors Jefferson John Kelly Kent Greenfield king labor liberty National natural nexus of contracts Omnicon owners percent persons political principles productivity profits property rights protection public corporations represent revolutionary Right of Capital rules serve share shareholder primacy social investing social responsibility society stakeholder laws stakeholder statutes stakeholder theory stock market stock options stockholders structures Supreme Court theorist theory Thomas Thomas Paine University vote wage wealth belongs wealth discrimination wealth privilege workers wrote York