Rating: 
Summary: The Corporation: Book and companion movie
Review: Still waiting to read the book, but it is a companion to the documentary movie: The Corporation which the author is involved. The Corporation, a Canadian documentary, is an excellent indepth expose on the evolution of this monster.
This film which includes commentary by Michael Moore(our honorary Canadian) opened this past winter in Canada and is now showing across the U.S. http://www.thecorporation.com/usa/
Excerpts from this film and I believe also from the book:
"In the mid-1800s the corporation emerged as a legal "person." Imbued with a "personality" of pure self-interest, the next 100 years saw the corporation's rise to dominance. The corporation created unprecedented wealth. But at what cost? The remorseless rationale of "externalities"-as Milton Friedman explains: the unintended consequences of a transaction between two parties on a third-is responsible for countless cases of illness, death, poverty, pollution, exploitation and lies."
Can't wait to get a hold of this book.
Another must read is "Unequal Protection" by Thom Hartmann.
Rating:
Summary: If you really care, you'll not miss this book
Review: The author accurately describes the corporation as a pooling of money by shareholders into a legal, protected entity run by managers and directors, hopefully to the benefit of the investors but too often with an unsettled trust in the board. Limiting the shareholder's personal liability to their investment undoubtedly has nourished the growth of corporations, jobs and the economy. But it is bittersweet, as Bakan notes the hyping of worthless stock and corporate fraud that facilitates the wealth of those extracting enormous and unjustified salaries and perks. As well, he notes that "... over the last 300 years corporations have amassed such great power as to weaken governments ability to control them." But he who gives it can take it away.Indeed congress has gotten its piece of the action as corporate leaders share part of their profits with the very politicians charged with regulating them. Some politicians even own stock in the companies they regulate. What else would explain why congress has failed to strongly intervene in the blatant corporate corruption of late? Is there any question that, were money not changing hands at the political level, corporate CEOs would have been allowed to form sweetheart deals with the very corporate boards charged with their oversight, when instead they should be protecting the shareholders? In virtually every congressional vote, one needs only to follow the money to predict its outcome. Bakan has many good ideas for cleaning up the corporate system, but his (and any) proposed fixes simply will not happen under the current moneyed political system. Until we stop the cash that flows from those who want laws written to those who write them, corporate abuse of shareholders and the taxpayers will continue. Only full public financing of our electoral system (at a cost of about $10 per taxpayer) will stop the abuses and the $1500 per taxpayer congress soles out each year to its funders. In any other country we'd call our system bribery and payola; in America we call it freedom of speech. In the corporate world we fire employees who take money from vendors; in the political world we reelect them. Where are our heads? This book is a must read for anybody interested in cleaning up the political system before we pass it on to the next generation.
Rating: 
Summary: A good piece of work
Review: The author is to be thanked for his scholarship and clarity in defining the history and the limitations of the modern corporate enterprise. As a businessperson, the limitations of corporate structure to deal with global markets, civil society, and pressing environmental problems, are apparent everyday. Daily business means choosing between environmental, social, and economic outcomes because of the corporation's responsibility to its shareholders, at the expense of all its common stakeholders. In his book, Mr. Bakan outlines the history of the corporation, defines the problem of enterprises operating at "status quo" in a world of diminishing "commons" and explains why the current structures are going to be difficult to change. He does this very well. Through interviews with leading academics, reviews of historical corporate behavior and the laws that have resulted to manage them, he describes how we got here. In his conclusions, we are told to look in the mirror, because we are these corporations. He then goes on to paraphrase Fritz Schumacher to say we need to redesign and gain control of these organizations and make them behave as if all people matter...not just their shareholders. When I ordered the book, I was fully prepared not to like it. The publishers review made it out to be an attack on the corporation. However, I did not find it particularly biased and I did learn more about why corporate structure is so difficult to change. His recommendations at the end of the book are not new and not unique, so there are no epiphanies there, but the current interviews and the legal perspective on the topic make this a valuable work for businesspeople trying to redefine the corporate paradigm.
Rating:
Summary: Eye Opener
Review: The book reviews and reader comments say it all. I found the book cleared away the fog to reveal the Corporation as it really is - a mindless machine. We know that they are for-profit businesses but at any cost??? Bakan mentions various CEOs who try to raise above it all and attempt to make some positive contributions to civilization and the environment. But no good deed goes unpunished in Corpworld as Bakan points out. What we need is a "new religion" for corporate behavior and goals, and a legal system to back it up. Bakan gives some ideas at the end on where to start.
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Summary: The Corporation as Imposter Citizen
Review: The modern corporation is a legally constructed entity with the overriding purpose and mandate of maximizing shareholder return. That seems innocuous enough, but the author clearly shows that corporations go far beyond that narrow focus by now dominating our social, economic, and political affairs, not just as business entities, but as legal persons with all the rights of genuine people. Their immense resources permit them to overwhelm average citizens in all of the realms in which they are active, advancing their agendas, but perhaps most notably in the political process. They are the main force behind the developments of globalization, immigration, out-sourcing, privatization, and de-regulation that have largely eliminated checks on their relentless pursuit of profits, despite the consequences, or "externalities," to the general population. The author contends that such a devotion to self-interest, to the exclusion of impacts on others, would be regarded as pathological in normal people.
Of course, corporations are not unaware that they need to soften their image as being beyond control. They devote considerable resources to public relations, "branding," and charity - to the convincing of being socially responsible. But the author points out that the charity comes as a cost to taxpayers and is an undemocratic determination of whom should benefit. Furthermore, the charity can be withdrawn on a whim. The drive for profits will always trump greater social concerns.
Substantial inequality of resources and power do not bode well for democracies. It is clear that the modern trans-national corporation undermines the influence of average citizens. As late as the mid-nineteenth century, corporations were chartered for specific public tasks with the charters subject to renewal or revocation. Now corporations view themselves as "partners" with the state, not subservient.
The author debunks the idea that market forces can reign in corporations. In the first place, wealth has the upper-hand in markets, which violates the one man, one vote basis of democracy. Secondly, the ability of random citizens to acquire enough information and to then act in concert to regulate corporations is a chimera.
The Corporation is a succinct discussion of the fiction that corporations are somehow persons, entitled to be regarded as the equal all citizens. The author, as a legal scholar, seems to be concerned that corporations, by charter, cannot be socially responsible, as are normal people, and any such behavior is only a means to the end of increasing profits. But even a perfect track record of doing good cannot eliminate the fact that corporations are internally tyrannies, through and through. Citizen empowerment should begin within companies and then proceed to overall societal control.
Rating:
Summary: Striking thesis convincingly presented
Review: The modern corporation, according to law professor Joel Bakan, is "singularly self-interested and unable to feel genuine concern for others in any context." (p. 56) From this Bakan concludes that the corporation is a "pathological" entity.
This is a striking conclusion. The so-called pathological personality in humans is well documented and includes serial killers and others who have no regard for the life and welfare of anyone but themselves. But is it really fair to label the corporation, managed and owned by normal caring and loving people, in this way?
Bakan thinks so. He begins with a little history showing how the corporation developed and how it came to occupy the dominate position that it enjoys today. He recalls a time before "limited liability" when shareholders were legally responsible for the actions of the corporation, a time when corporations could not own stock in other companies, a time when corporations could not acquire or merge with other corporations, a time when shareholders could more closely control corporate management.
Next he shows what corporations have become, and finally what can be done about it.
Bakan's argument includes the point that the corporation's sole reason for being is to enhance the profits and power of the corporation. He shows by citing court cases that it is the duty of management to make money and that any compromise with that duty is dereliction of duty.
Another point is that "corporations are designed to externalize their costs." The corporation is "deliberately programmed, indeed legally compelled, to externalize costs without regard for the harm it may cause to people, communities, and the natural environment. Every cost it can unload onto someone else is a benefit to itself, a direct route to profit." (pp. 72-73)
And herein lies the paradox of the corporation. Designed to turn labor and raw materials efficiently into goods and services and to thereby raise our standard of living, it has been a very effective tool for humans to use. On the other hand, because it is blind to anything but its own welfare, the corporation uses humans and the resources of the planet in ways that can be and often are detrimental to people and the environment. Corporations, to put it bluntly, foul the environment with their wastes and will not clean up unless forced to. (Fouling the environment and leaving the mess for somebody else to clean up is exactly what "externalizing costs" is all about.)
Furthermore, corporations are amoral toward the law. "Compliance...is a matter of costs and benefits," Bakan writes. ( p. 79) He quotes businessman Robert Monks as saying, "...whether corporations obey the law or not is a matter of whether it's cost effective... If the chance of getting caught and the penalty are less than it costs to comply, our people think of it as being just a business decision." (p. 80)
The result is a nearly constant bending and breaking of the law. They pay the fine and then break the law again. The corporation, after all, has no conscience and feels no remorse. Bakan cites 42 "major legal breaches" by General Electric between 1990 and 2001 on pages 75-79 as an example. The fines for maleficence are usually so small relative to the gain that it's cost effective to break the law.
Bakan disagrees with the notion that corporations can be responsible citizens and that corporate managers can act in the public good. He believes that corporations can and sometimes do act in the public interest, but only when that coincides with their interests or because they feel the public relations value of acting in the public interest is greater than the cost of not doing so. He adds "business is all about taking advantage of circumstances. Corporate social responsibility is an oxymoron...as is the related notion that corporations can...be relied upon to promote the public interest." (p. 109)
As for corporations regulating themselves, Bakan writes, "No one would seriously suggest that individuals should regulate themselves, that laws against murder, assault, and theft are unnecessary because people are socially responsible. Yet oddly, we are asked to believe that corporate persons--institutional psychopaths who lack any sense of moral conviction and who have the power and motivation to cause harm and devastation in the world--should be left free to govern themselves." (p. 110)
Bakan even argues (and I think he is substantially right) that "Deregulation is really a form of dedemocratization" because it takes power away from a government, elected by the people, and gives it to corporations which are elected by nobody.
Some of the book is devoted to advertizing by corporations, especially to children, and the effect of such advertizing. Beyond advertizing is pro-corporate and anti-government propaganda. Bakan quotes Noam Chomsky as saying, "One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." (p. 152)
What to do? Well, for starters, make the fines large enough to change corporate behavior. Make management responsible--criminally if necessary--for the actions of the corporation. Bakan includes these among his remedies on pages 161-164. He also wants the charters of flagrant and persistent violators to be suspended. He writes that corporations are the creations of government and should be subject to governmental control and should NOT (as we often hear) be "partners" with government.
He would also like to see elections publically financed and an end to corporate political donations. Indeed if we could take the money out of elections, our representatives would not be beholden to the corporate structure and would act more consistently in the broader public interest. I think this is one of the most important challenges facing our country today, that of lessening the influence of money on the democratic process.
Bottom line: a seminal book about one of the most important issues facing us today.
Rating:
Summary: Let's Get Started!
Review: This powerful book and documentary film have the power to impact the global economy and make our world a better, more humane place. Often when people read these books or watch these films they say, "Great, I recognize the problem, but there is just nothing I can do about it. It's so depressing." This is not true at all! One powerful action you can take is to spread the word and help promote the film. Visit The Corporation's website, www.thecorporation.com, and fill out a volunteer form. Some business schools in Canada are already using the film to develop a unit on corporate responsibility. Additionally, many companies have been shamed by all the media attention their misdeeds are garnering, and this in itself helps lead to better corporate behavior in the future. Purchasing the book and watching the film is a political act. If you want to make a difference, promoting The Corporation is one of the best ways to begin.
Rating: 
Summary: Thuddingly unoriginal
Review: Unfortunately, Joel Bakan has written a middling coffee-table book rather than a work of serious scholarship. For a book with such lofty ambitions and so portentous a title, this is an immense disappointment. Worst of all, most of the insights contained in "The Corporation" are thuddingly unoriginal: Do we need yet another book to tell us that corporations dump pollutants in rivers, employ sweatshop labor, and use deceptive marketing tactics in the service of profitability? As true as these assertions may be, they do not make the book ipso facto good, just as a passionate defense of the idea that the Earth is round should no longer be worthy of plaudits. It is incumbent on the author to bring something new to the table, and on that score Bakan has failed.
In my view, Bakan is badly mistaken about the source of the corporation's pathologies. The ills of the corporation can be traced to Communism, not Capitalism. To understand this, consider for a moment that corporations are essentially bastions of central-planning in an otherwise capitalist landscape. As some scholars have noted, this apparent paradox likely explains why corporations suffer from many of the same pathologies that are endemic to Communist countries - namely, the self-enrichment of those in power, lack of accountability, a predilection for obfuscation, etc. It is a point that I suspect Bakan was unwilling to make because it does not conform with his manifestly socialist leanings.
Finally, some of the solutions proposed by Bakan, particularly those centering on expanding the role of government through increased regulation, are hopelessly doctrinaire. Imposing still more regulation will simply inspire efforts on the part of corporations to circumvent them. Given that Bakan is a Rhodes Scholar and a law professor, I'm sure he knows this; but sadly, it seems he'd rather take aim at the ideological blindspots of his readers using schmaltzy agitprop instead of crafting a cogent argument.
Rating:
Summary: Enlighten yourself
Review: What an amazing book! Discusses a wide range of issues related to the negative impact of socially-irresponsible corporations. One of the best books on the topic. You will feel very educated on this issue after reading the book. I also like how the authors offer a very balanced perspective about corporations. For example, the recognize that many people who work at these multinational corporations might be good, caring citizens, but in their position, as say CEO, they recognize that their responsibility is to make as much money as possible for their shareholders. The examples in this book are chilling and memorable. Share this book with a friend!
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Summary: One-sided, misleading, unbalanced
Review: Whatever happened to good old-fashioned documentaries, the ones that informed without distortion, and the main agenda was truth (the whole truth)? When did paranoia and conspiracy become fashionable? When are we (especially Americans who should know better) going to wake up and start taking responsibility for the way things work in our government and in our (corporate) economy? The nut cases on the right want to own guns so they can protect themselves from the evils of government, and the nut cases on the left want to own the government so they can protect themselves from the evils of corporations. And then there are the poor schizophrenics who believe that the government and the corporations are colluding to form an evil axis of power. To say that the highest guiding principle of corporations is to make profits without any regard for the welfare of the people or the planet is, at best, an oversimplified distortion. Greed and short-term self-interest are equally endemic in individuals as they are in corporations. Human culture is evolving slowly. Someday, we will either become civilized or we will die trying.
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