Corporations, Classes and Capitalism

John Scott

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781032731063
• eBook ISBN: 9781040004777
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 1985, Corporations, Classes and Capitalism raises some crucial questions – how important are large multinational companies? Who really controls the economy? Is government policy able to influence business activities? John Scott examines the transformation of industrial property over the last hundred years and, through the use of extensive empirical data, relates this transformation to the actual structure of control over business decision-making. The book considers the rival theories of industrial society and capitalist society and argues that neither provides a satisfactory account of the development of industrial capitalism. Building on these theories, and the critical debates they have generated, John Scott develops an alternative model of corporate control – control through a constellation of interests. He argues that this new form of impersonal possession has emerged in Britian, America, Australia and Canada but is not so strongly developed in other economies. This book will be of interest to students of sociology, political science, and economics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Preface to the Reprinted Edition
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Preface and acknowledgements
• 1 The debate over big business
• 2 Corporate capital and corporate control
• 3 Corporate control in America and Britain
• 4 Finance capital in America and Britain
• 5 Alternative patterns of capitalist development
• 6 Corporate strategy and operational management
• 7 Concentration, internationalization, and intervention
• 8 The corporation and the class structure
• 9 The search for an alternative theory
• Bibliography
• Index