The Prime Ministers' Craft

Abstract

This book addresses major modern controversies in corporate governance, clarifying the issues at stake and assessing the arguments for corporate reform. The main focus is on governance of the large organizations that employ the majority of workforces in developed economies and which account for most of the finance and refinance of the private sector. Shareholder value and shareholder primacy are now under increasing scrutiny having previously been positioned as natural precepts of governance. The book joins that debate with a critique and also with suggestions for company reform that allow for plurality within jurisdictions: the trust firm, industrial foundations, social enterprises, the ‘benefit corporation’, restricted voting rights, employee representation etc. The book addresses several sets of controversies in corporate governance. Part 1 places the corporate form within the context of legal constitution and governmental regulation. The second set of chapters considers corporate governance systems and their role in innovation and adaptation. The chapters in part 3 discuss labour relations and worker involvement in the governance of companies. Part 4 widens the focus to consider effects external to the firm—on consumer interests and the environment. What these issues point to is that the modern corporation is not only an economic institution but also a cultural and political one, reflecting the firm’s role in civil society The overall theme is that the corporate governance agenda has been on the wrong track and needs to be fundamentally reset.