Capitalism, Corporations and the Social Contract PDF Download

Author: Samuel F. Mansell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107015529
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Samuel Mansell critiques the principles of stakeholder theory, proposing instead a qualified version of Friedman's shareholder theory.

Author: Samuel F. Mansell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139619632
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
In whose interests should a corporation be run? Over the last thirty years the field of 'stakeholder theory' has proposed a distinctive answer: a corporation should be run in the interests of all its primary stakeholders - including employees, customers, suppliers and financiers - without contradicting the ethical principles on which capitalism stands. This book offers a critique of this central claim. It argues that by applying the political concept of a 'social contract' to the corporation, stakeholder theory in fact undermines the principles on which a market economy is based. The argument builds upon an extensive review of the stakeholder literature and an analysis of its philosophical foundations, particularly concerning the social contract tradition of John Rawls and his predecessors. The book concludes by offering a qualified version of Milton Friedman's shareholder theory as a more justifiable account of the purpose of a corporation.

Author: Anne M. Cronin
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319726374
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 123

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Book Description
This book argues that we are witnessing the emergence of ‘commercial democracy’ in which public relations, promotional culture and the media play a new, central role. As the conventional democratic promise of political representation loses traction with the public in many countries, commercial culture steps into this vacuum by offering mirror forms of democracy. Commercial democracy promises representation, voice and agency to the public and in doing so creates new forms of social contract. Based on empirical material, this book examines the Public Relations (PR) produced by corporations and communications produced by charities in an intensely mediatized society. It presents a novel analysis of the shifting significance of brand and reputation. It analyses the ascendancy of commercial speech, PRs’ relationship to post-truth politics, and the transformation of cultural intermediaries into ‘social brokers’. As PR and promotional culture come to inhabit the realm of the social contract and new forms of politics, ‘the public’ and the very idea of ‘publicity’ are transformed.

Author: Stephen Valocchi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351036610
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
In this important text, Stephen Valocchi brings capitalism back into the study of the gay and lesbian movement. He argues that to understand the collective identity, structure, strategies and goals of the movement, we need to understand the role that capitalism and the state have played. While capitalism and the state have figured centrally in earlier analyses of social movements, these important institutions and their social processes are no longer central concerns of the theory and research of social movements in the United States. Capitalisms and Gay Identities examines how the class-based inequalities and changing class structures of capitalism interact with and indeed help shape the dynamics of other types of inequalities, such as gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity. These inequalities and structures, in turn, shape the specific grievances of, and affect the nature of, stigma levied against individuals with sexual and gender nonconformity. Valocchi shows that capitalism is a dynamic system, and as it changes, the nature of the movement and the collective identity created by the movement also changes. A vital text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of sociology, social movements, LGBTQ politics and American studies, Capitalisms and Gay Identities challenges our understanding of many aspects of the gay and lesbian movement when viewed through the lens of capitalism, particularly its ability to advance the cause of sexual freedom and gender justice.

Author: Patrick Huntjens
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030671305
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
This open access book is a 2022 Nautilus Gold Medal winner in the category "World Cultures' Transformational Growth & Development". It states that the societal fault lines of our times are deeply intertwined and that they confront us with challenges affecting the security, fairness and sustainability of our societies. The author, Prof. Dr. Patrick Huntjens, argues that overcoming these existential challenges will require a fundamental shift from our current anthropocentric and economic growth-oriented approach to a more ecocentric and regenerative approach. He advocates for a Natural Social Contract that emphasizes long-term sustainability and the general welfare of both humankind and planet Earth. Achieving this crucial balance calls for an end to unlimited economic growth, overconsumption and over-individualisation for the benefit of ourselves, our planet, and future generations. To this end, sustainability, health, and justice in all social-ecological systems will require systemic innovation and prioritizing a collective effort. The Transformative Social-Ecological Innovation (TSEI) framework presented in this book serves that cause. It helps to diagnose and advance innovation and spur change across sectors, disciplines, and at different levels of governance. Altogether, TSEI identifies intervention points and formulates jointly developed and shared solutions to inform policymakers, administrators, concerned citizens, and professionals dedicated towards a more sustainable, healthy and just society. A wide readership of students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers interested in social innovation, transition studies, development studies, social policy, social justice, climate change, environmental studies, political science and economics will find this cutting-edge book particularly useful. “As a sustainability transition researcher, I am truly excited about this book. Two unique aspects of the book are that it considers bigger transformation issues (such as societies’ relationship with nature, purpose and justice) than those studied in transition studies and offers analytical frameworks and methods for taking up the challenge of achieving change on the ground.” - Prof. Dr. René Kemp, United Nations University and Maastricht Sustainability Institute

Author: Yann Moulier-Boutang
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745647324
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
This book argues that we are undergoing a transition from industrial capitalism to a new form of capitalism - what the author calls & lsquo; cognitive capitalism & rsquo;

Author: Joon Yun
Publisher: Yun Family Foundation
ISBN: 9781949709377
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The story we're telling is simple: as humans have globalized, family values have not scaled well. Not so many lifetimes ago, we lived in kin tribes where our interests were aligned according to the principles of inclusive fitness. Unfortunately, those principles are maladapted to our modern era, as fake news, fake foods, and fake politicians endemic in our society are catalyzed by the low alignment of interests among strangers. We wrote this book to help the world reimagine new types of social, political, and economic institutions for the global village. The social contract of the future will be based on the principles of inclusive stakeholding and vested interest in the success of others--attributes that were inherent in the inclusive fitness of our prehistoric social systems. The time has come for Interdependent Capitalism.

Author: Wm. Dennis Huber
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000291219
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
This book is a continuation of Corporate Law and the Theory of the Firm: Reconstructing Corporations, Shareholders, Directors, Owners, and Investors. The author extends his analysis of contract law, property law, agency law, trust law, and corporate statutory law and applies that analysis to defy conventional concepts and theories in economics, finance, investment, and accounting and expose the artificial boundaries established by decades of research founded on indefensible assumptions and fallacious conclusions. Using the Humpty Dumpty principle, where words mean what the authors want them to mean, economists have created "strange new worlds" where contract law, property law, agency law, and corporate statutory law no longer apply. The author dismantles the theory of the firm by proving the theory of the firm wilfully and intentionally ignores fundamental contract law, property law, agency law, and corporate statutory law. Contrary to the theory of the firm, shareholders do not own corporations, directors are not agents of shareholders, and shareholders are not investors in corporations. The author proves that by property law and corporate law, capital is not privately owned by capitalists but by corporations. Entire economic and social systems have been constructed that have no basis in law. With the advent of publicly traded corporations, the capital is there, but both capitalists and capitalism have been rendered extinct. This book will appeal to researchers and graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in economics, finance, accounting, law, and sociology, as well as legal scholars, attorneys and accountants.

Author: Robert L. Bradley
Publisher: M & M Scrivener Press
ISBN: 098020948X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
Read the Intro Chapter (PDF) View the Ayn Rand Appendix View an interview with author Robert L. Bradley, Jr. at Reason.com Capitalism took the blame for Enron although the company was anything but a free-market enterprise, and company architect was hardly a principled capitalist. On the contrary, Enron was a politically dependent company and, in the end, a grotesque outcome of America's mixed economy. That is the central finding of Robert L. Bradley's "Capitalism at Work": The blame for Enron rests squarely with "political capitalism"--a system in which business firms routinely obtain government intervention to further their own interests at the expense of consumers, taxpayers, and competitors. Although Ken Lay professed allegiance to free markets, he was in fact a consumate politician. Only by manipulating the levers of government was he able to transform Enron from a $3 billion natural gas company to a $100 billion chimera, one that went in a matter of months from seventh place on Fortune's 500 list to bankruptcy. But "Capitalism at Work" goes beyond unmasking Enron's sophisticated foray into political capitalism. Employing the timeless insights of Adam Smith, Samuel Smiles, and Ayn Rand, among others, Bradley shows how fashionable anti-capitalist doctrines set the stage for the ultimate business debacle. Those errant theories, like Enron itself, elevated form over substance, ignored legitimate criticism, and bypassed midcourse correction. Political capitali

Author: Susan Albers Mohrman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351285394
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Stewardship entails a profound understanding and acceptance of the challenges that result from the organization’s interdependence with the societal and ecological contexts in which it operates—and of what it takes to embrace the challenges to be a force for building a viable future. This book dares to ask ‘why’ business leaders should embrace stewardship in the current market where profit reigns supreme. A shift in approach represents fundamental change for the corporate world, and even the most advanced corporations consider themselves to be in the starting block of this transition. The book sets out the practical ways in which corporate stewardship can be achieved through embedding new approaches across the different functions of a business. This book, written by the leading thinkers in sustainability research, provides practical guidance on how companies can resolve the paradoxical challenges they face. How can they be at the same time profitable and responsible, effective and ethical, sustainable and adaptable? It explores what businesses are doing, what they can and should do to effectively respond to external challenges, and focuses on how leaders can create cultures, strategies, and designs far beyond “business as usual”.Stewards must not only make proper current use of that which they hold in trust, they also must leave it in better condition for use by future generations. Corporate Stewardship challenges managers, executives, and directors of global corporations to think and act as stewards of both their organizations and the physical and social environments in which they operate.