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When Corporations Rule the World, by David C. Korten
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* An international best-seller
* Endorsed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab
* Selected as one of the Top 50 Sustainability Books as voted for by the University of Cambridge's Programme for Sustainability Leadership alumni network
This second edition updates the reader on the deepening human crisis of the global economy. The gap between rich and poor continues to grow, and people continue to exploit the planet. Korten writes of the new global citizens’ movement of activism in response to corporate globalization, and of civil society groups’ efforts to restructure global economic governance. He transitions from a critical analysis of the new world order to an optimistic focus on the role of spirit and culture in a "civil-ized" society.
- Sales Rank: #626072 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
- Published on: 2001-05-10
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.96" h x 1.06" w x 6.06" l, 1.17 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 385 pages
- ISBN13: 9781887208048
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
From Publishers Weekly
This well-documented, apocalyptic tome describes the global spread of corporate power as a malignant cancer exercising a market tyranny that is gradually destroying lives, democratic institutions and the ecosystem for the benefit of greedy companies and investors. Korten (Getting to the 21st Century) points out his conservative roots and business credentials?and then proceeds to finger such classic conspiracy-theory scapegoats as the Trilateral Commission and Council on Foreign Relations as the planning agents of the new world economic order he decries. Korten, founder of the People-Centered Development Forum, prescribes a reordering of developmental priorities to restore local control and benefits. Suggested reforms include shifting tax policies to punish greed and reward social responsibility, placing a 100% reserve requirement on demand deposits at banks and closing the World Bank, which he claims encourages indebtedness in nations that can't afford it.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Korten (Getting to the Twenty-First Century, Kumarian Pr., 1990) brings impressive credentials to the task of blaming large international corporations for many of the social and environmental problems confronting people all over the world. Using numerous well-researched examples, Korten argues that not only do today's corporations exploit labor and the environment, but governments (particularly the U.S. government), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, aid and abet this exploitation through policies that favor capitalists over workers and small business. Although Korten speaks from an obviously liberal position, in an era when conservative political voices declare an unswerving faith in the benefits of unfettered free markets, a voice from the opposition offers a welcome balance. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Andrea C. Dragon, Coll. of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station,
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Scientific American
If you can read only one book on how to understand and address the enormous challenges of our time, When Corporations Rule the World is it....
Most helpful customer reviews
85 of 90 people found the following review helpful.
It's not When, they do. Good overview of the concerns.
By J. Grattan
The fact that transnational corporations and their agendas have come to dominate cultural, political, and economic life on a global scale can hardly be disputed. These powerful corporations have used national governments and government-created international bodies to create a legislative and institutional regime that accedes to and actively promotes and implements a "free-market" ideology. This book is largely concerned with detailing the tremendous costs to the political, economic, and social fabric of the entire global community as corporations have become ever more capable under this ideological regime in extracting wealth and generating huge profits on a worldwide basis. The author sees poverty, social and political disintegration, and environmental degradation as the main consequences of this global corporate ascendance.
The ability of corporations to penetrate the political and cultural sectors of our society is hardly a late twentieth century phenomenon. Despite the founders' efforts to contain corporations by explicit and revocable state charters, emerging industrialists in the post-Civil War era became powerful enough to sway legislators and the judiciary to act in their behalf. Not only did corporations generally gain rights to perpetuity, but the Supreme Court declared corporations to be legal persons entitled to the same rights as ordinary citizens, in addition to limited liability. By the late 1920s capitalism had largely emerged triumphant over worker and community interests. Consumerism was instilled as the only legitimate avenue for realizing individualized "freedom."
According to the author, a form of democratic pluralism existed among the civil, governmental, and market sectors of society in the post-WWII era, but any such sectorial accommodation was mostly an aberration that came about only because of the necessity to solve the twin crises of the Great Depression (caused by corporate-led economic excess) and WWII. Any social accord that may have existed was shredded as corporations, backed by the Reagan administration, renewed their assault on the working class and relentlessly pursued self-interested global strategies. Over the last two decades, middle-class jobs have been lost, median pay has stagnated, and austerity has been imposed on the less fortunate as a profound upward redistribution of wealth and income has occurred.
Globally, the structural adjustment measures forced upon developing nations by the World Bank and the IMF to qualify for loans, ripped the fabric of those societies and have actually increased indebtedness to First World bankers. Trade agreements and administrative bodies, such as the NAFTA and the WTO, are designed to eliminate local restrictions on investments by international firms and barriers to the free movement of goods between nations. The freedom for capital to move freely among nations has also fueled rampant financial speculation unrelated to productive investment. Unconscionably, American taxpayers have been forced to bailout those engaged in extracting wealth from the developing world.
Free market ideology is used to justify the gutting of the social and legal structures of nations. But it is a disingenuous view. Free market activities posited by Adam Smith involve local, individual economic actors, none of whom have the power to control the marketplace. Unregulated market activities by huge economic entities can result in market coercion. For example, monopolistic firms can externalize costs, that is, they are powerful enough to force societies to pay for the social and environmental side-effects of their activities. For example, labor and environmental regulations are often ignored with impunity with society picking up the pieces.
The impact of corporations acting as legal persons cannot be overemphasized. Corporations overwhelm actual citizen political participation and free speech by the extent and intensity of their political lobbying and media controlling efforts. Corporations and the rich, in a form of legalized bribery, basically fund political campaigns. They also heavily sway public opinion through public relations front organizations, conservative think-tanks, and the control of the major media. The dependency of the media on advertising dollars virtually guarantees presentation of views that are compatible with corporate interests, not to mention the fact that the huge media empires are themselves transnational corporations with no interest in harming broader corporate interests.
As the author indicates, corporations have largely "colonized" the common culture. Television is the main media outlet for the inculcation of business-friendly values, which emphasizes the avid pursuit of consumption. Even political activity has become mostly the marketing of pleasing candidates. The message is incessantly and subtly delivered that a free market system is self running and stabilizing and needs little or no political interference. Of course, the reality is far different. Corporations have infiltrated government at all levels with the sole purpose of ensuring that governments take an active role in supporting the corporate agenda, or pro-business regulation. In addition, governments are left to deal with the unprofitable aspects of society or side-effects of corporate actions. The net effect is a democracy hardly worthy of the name.
The author's principal approach to this regime of corporate hegemony is to call for a rollback to self-sustaining local communities. Such recommended measures as land reform (breaking up corporate farms) and urban agriculture seem almost quaint. The author confuses his message of a return to pre-consumption-dominated life by calling for high tech solutions, such as video-phones, to link local communities. Where does he think high tech products come from other than corporate development labs? A hard-hitting analysis seems to be getting waylaid by some fuzzy spirituality.
But the most practical approach is contained in the book. Free market propaganda has to be countered and a regime of regulating big business through governmental controls must be instituted. Is there any hope for this? The Seattle protest and other citizen demonstrations show that the democracy-killing initiatives of the WTO have not gone unnoticed. In addition, it has been claimed that 25 percent of the population belongs to a cultural grouping called "Cultural Creatives," who can be expected to oppose insensitive corporate agendas. And the author takes no note of minority interests that are generally opposed to the conservative business agenda. The author wants to see a cultural transformation, but a heightened awareness of class will be needed to combat the class warfare being perpetrated on the non-elites of the world.
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
A well-stated thesis backed by research and logic
By Brave Sir Robin
Just finished it tonight, and am overall impressed with all but the last section of the book. I came into this wanting to know why American democracy seems to be decaying at the behest of corporate greed and voter apathy, and feel this tome addresses these issues in a very well documented and reasoned way. I think it helps to state some of the various Green/economic issues that are behind the anti-globalization movements, and gives the movement a much more credible footing to use.
Oddly enough, I don't think anyone needs to be convinced that what major, multi-national corporations are doing to people and the planet are not good for the long-term viability of either. Still, Korten classifies the wrongdoings and gives them context, in a very methodical way. Sometimes it seems to drag, but that's because the problem is big and has many aspects to see before you can fully appreciate its scope.
The only place I had trouble was at the end, where the author suggests solutions to current corporate economic dominiation. The suggestion of a greater role of local economics and action makes sense to me, and probably to others. It's when he starts suggesting a life "driven not by the love of money, but by a love of life" that I start to groan. Such imprecise feel-good prescriptions (though well intended) don't really get us closer to corrective actions. To his credit, there are more concrete suggestions that we can follow (recycle/reuse, buy organic, etc), but they could be stated more coherently.
Still, this is a good primer for understanding the workings of both corporations and the IMF/World Bank in the global economy. Definitely worth the read.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Rediscover Democracy, America
By J.W.K
(This review is of the 2001 updated and explanded second edition of When Corporatinos Ruled the World. With 5 new chapters, updated statistics and a revamp, we now know that it is possible to improve upon perfection.)
By far, the most comprehensive, well-researched, incisive documentation of systemic corporate abuse available. However, When Corporations Rule is not simply a litany of profligate corporate excess. Korten explains the dysfunctional logic of our system, outlines the horrendous consequences for community and environment, and provides clear, cogent plans of action to restore democracy and awaken culturally.
The thesis is so obvious it is a wonder no one has formulated before. We always harangue socialism as an "extreme ideology," but capitalism is also an extreme ideology. Socialism concentrates power in a centralized government, creating unsupportable social and environmental costs. Likewise, capitalism concentrates power in huge private institutions (the modern multinational corporation), which also have enormous social and environmental costs. Both advance the concentration of rights of ownership without limit, to the exclusion of the needs and rights of the many who own virtually nothing. And as Korten points out, the impoverished many are growing.
As of 1992, the richest 20 percent of the global population received as much as 82.7 percent of the total world income. The poorest 20 percent received 1.4 percent. These figures indicate growing economic inequality, which is has become even more pronounced in the last decade. In 1998, the world's top three billionaires totaled more assets than the combined GNP of all the least developing countries and their 600 million people. Of the world's 6 billion people, 2.8 - that is, nearly half - were living on less than $2 a day. Some 1.2 billion of that half lived on less than a dollar a day.
Inside America - the global economic trendsetter - this growing global inequality is mirrored in microcosm. In fact, inequality and hardship is even more exaggerated in the Land of the Free. The wealthiest 10 percent now owns almost 90 percent of all business equity, 88.5 percent of all bonds, and 89.3 percent of all stocks. In 1999, the total compensation of U.S. corporate CEOs was 475 times the average production worker's pay; and 29 percent of all U.S. workers were in jobs paying poverty level wages, defined as an hourly wage too low to meet the needs of a family of four. Moreover, with each new mega-merger, more capital, power and control are concentrated in these already mammoth institutions.
These are just a few of the statistics sited in the book, but When Corporations Rule offers more than statistical analysis. With laser precision, Korten assays economic and political history, uncovering the reasons for these global trends: including the illusion of growth, the loss of governmental oversight in the affairs of corporations, the rise of the Newtonian mechanical worldview and its subsequent devaluation of spiritual values, etc. His critique of globalization was absolutely stunning: including the effects of NAFTA, and the general policies of the WTO, the WB and the IMF. Finally, his call for localism, activism, spiritualism, and an ecological awakening are inspiring and timely.
Not a stone goes uncovered. The failure of development strategies for the Third World (his stated specialty), critical discussion of traditional economic theory, the rise of PR, global poverty, currency speculation and corporate raiding, downsizing, contracting labor, automating, the loss of the small farm, the effects of Wal-Mart and the like, ecological collapse, the coming Ecological Revolution, sustainability, socially responsible investment, systems theory, urban design, history of the current globalization protest movement, detailed agenda for democratic change - these and so many other important issues are weaved together in a remarkable argument that will move you. I cannot think of a more important book for this troubled planet.
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