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Summary: Introductory
Review: The best feature of this book is the author's fetching photo. The second best is her cool chapter headings. Unfortunately, the content places third. By the standards of a Sunday paper or magazine piece it's very good, but from a professor I was expecting something more intellectually impressive, perhaps pathbreaking. This is simply a well-written introduction (with a pronounced left-wing bias).
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Summary: An Erudite & Fascinating Look At Transnationals!
Review: The thesis in this extremely well written and eminently readable tome runs along what is by now the well-worn path of a number of other neo-Luddite authors like Sales Kirkpatrick and Neil Postman. Hertz, a Cambridge scholar and an economist, posits that the neo-conservative policies first initiated by the Reagan administration in the United States and by Martha Thatcher's government in Britain were profoundly anti-democratic, having disastrously disruptive effects in terms of its social and political consequences for the citizens of those countries. Thus, she argues that although the initial effects was to bring a wave of prosperity and wealth to a narrow segment of each of the societies, the growth of the transnational corporations has increasingly served to progressively and surreptitiously disenfranchise ordinary citizens of their most basic rights by corrupting the political policies of those countries to favor the needs, prerogatives, and perspectives of the corporations over those of the citizenry at large. In fact, she argues, the transformation of laws and regulations relating to the conduct of such corporations has been so profound and far-reaching that they now act in a manner that is beyond the reach and control of those polities from which they originally arose. Such corporations now act to influence the policies and laws of most social democracies that they now act to determine political policies rather than operate in deference to them. Slowly this state of affairs has acted to subvert the rights of ordinary citizens, for the state increasingly has become more an agent of the interests of the transnational now becomes an agent corporation than a bulwark of protection for the citizenry of the country as it formerly was. This, she argues, serves to nullify the basic social contract between the people on the one hand, and the state, on the other for the state to offer equal protection to all its citizens in general, and not to special interests such as the transnational corporations in particular. She cites, by way of an example, the fact that in the last twenty years income redistribution policies instituted by the state has been profoundly prejudiced in favor of the highest reaches of society, stealing from the poor to give to the rich. Hertz recognizes the intrinsic difficulty associated with attempting to effect any reform or reversal of such policies. Yet, unless social democracies move quickly and decisively to realign the calculus pertaining to the equation between the countervailing political power of the state over the economic power of the transnational corporation, common citizens may lose forever their ability to participate meaningfully in the democratic process in order to positively influence their own fates in a post-industrial culture that increasingly favors the rights, prerogatives, and preferences of the rich and powerful. This is an important and even profound book, and one that deserves to be more widely read and appreciated. I can heartily recommend it to you. Enjoy!
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Summary: The Sensationalism that Feeds Protectionism and Socialism
Review: This book ironically reminds me of something the author -- Hertz -- uses an example in her book: the Beneton Bubble. In an age where it has become fashionable to be anti-free trade, anti-capitalism the author draws upon sensational anecdotes and out-of-context examples to portray a Soylent Green Future. The author contends without mincing words that the US government has been irreparably corrupted by coorporate influence while still ignoring the massive social issues arena that continues to dominate politics not only in the US but around the world. The author critisizes deregulation and laisez-faire, but offers no alternative. At once point the author nearly completely concedes her arguments by admitting that consumers can check the powers of coorporations merely through discriminatory shopping, and that this has successfully altered American coorporate policy before. She offers no reason why this system does not continue to work, and merely makes the unsupported claim that "democracy is dead" and coorporations own Senators. This book was also written after the passge of McCain-Feingold, and yet the author fails to concede that it occured and works against her arguments.
If you want to read the rantings of a disgruntled socialist that has no economic sense at all, then read this book.
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Summary: Want to Understand What All the Fuss is About?
Review: We sometimes catch a glimpse of "anarchist" protesters and heads of state at global economic summits, but many of us lack a comprehensive view of the process of globalization. Depending on what papers you read and how closely you read them, your view of globalization may be more or less informed, more or less ideologically biased, but is most probably lacking in some aspect. This book brings it all together in a timely and accurate historical tale. Hertz starts by identifying certain realities and discontents: corporations getting larger and larger everyday through mega-mergers; a widening gap between the rich Haves and the poor Have-nots; fewer and fewer people turning out to vote, as more and more people, from Seattle to Genoa, hit the streets in protest of profligate politics and out-of-control business. She then focuses on one of the major causes of these problems: the government's mad-dash to "liberalize" and deregulate their control of commerce and industry. In other words, the private sector is set free and the state withers away in every capacity -- except insofar as campaign and lobby contributions purchase the last of our "representative" influence in the political sphere. The picture this book paints is nothing less than the hijacking of our democratic political heritage by large, increasing global corporations who pay no homage to local people, public health, labor rights, environmental degradation or national sovereignty -- and, conversely, the shrinkage of our government to the role of a corporate nanny, whose primary function would appear to begging large corporations not to flee to the Third World with large, tax-fed subsidies and lax environmental codes. Very concisely worded, accurately and appropriately referenced, the book will serve as a solid companion to anybody interested in understanding where the last 50 years of scandal-ridden politics and unfettered business have landed us. By no coincidence was "The Silent Takeover" The Sunday Times' book of the year and a best seller in England. Apparently, it has now been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Korean, Portuguese and Japanese.
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Summary: Critique Light, but useful
Review: Whether done silently or not, the author makes the case for the fact that huge transnational corporations (TNCs) have taken on the societal role that formerly fell to governments and that governments largely accede to and support the agenda and maneuverings of those corporations. As a result, perhaps as many as one half of voting-age citizens in democracies do not find their political processes viable, worth participating in. The author examines alternatives to democratic participation, to pressuring corporations. Beginning with the rise of Thatcher and Reagan, neo-liberalism has become the dominant economic and political philosophy worldwide with deregulation and privatization being core elements of that thinking. It is a very sparse view of the obligations of leading institutions to look out for the general good of society. However, for the book supposedly being a critique of laissez-faire capitalism, the author seems to have somewhat mixed feelings concerning the desirability of free-running capitalism. Her biggest concern seems to be the maldistribution of the wealth gains of the 1990s. But she also seems to be dazzled by the huge increases in wealth experienced by many and the overall benefits of free trade. What is missing from the analysis is any real understanding of the true powerlessness of the working class to withstand this business assault. With the mass media and politicians firmly supporting the business agenda, workers have nowhere to turn as they are downsized, benefits are cut, jobs are shipped overseas, and workers' rights on the job are toothless or nonexistent. As a substitute for actual worker power on the job, the author would suggest shareholder activism: forcing ethical behavior and investment through pressuring boards of directors and fund managers. Of course, any significant shareholding is already skewed towards the rich whose concerns are not those of the working class. The author makes much of the ability of consumer activism to curtail corporate excesses, instead of using the political process. She cites the examples of Kathy Lee Gifford and Nike, where consumers supposedly forced companies to not use sweatshop labor. Of course, that is the sort of thing that is unverifiable as contractors move about globally, not to mention such protests cannot possibly be more than a drop in the proverbial bucket. While noting the several protests surrounding meetings of world trade bodies, again, the net effect of those protests has amounted to little. Much of these actions perpetuate an illusion that the system is modifiable by citizens, despite the absence of political participation. Of course, corporations are forever concerned with image, that is, their brands. In the interest of name promotion and co-opting protest movements, the author cites several examples of corporations providing such social services as education and health care in various countries where their factories are located. The author does not note that under IMF structural adjustments, governments have been forced to cut social services to the bone. So corporations can step into that vacuum when they wish, but when cheaper labor can be found elsewhere, those facilities are closed just as quickly as the factories. The same sort of thing can be said for the codes of conduct adopted by most TNCs: when those vaguely worded declarations affect the bottom line, they can be dispensed with in a heartbeat. A particularly pernicious development in the U.S. is the penetration of primary and secondary schools by large corporations under the guise of supplying needed technology. Of course, corporate logos and advertising are part of the package. This review is not to say that the author is pleased with this state of affairs. She does not regard ad hoc protests as a good substitute for democratic participation. But there seems to be little appreciation or emphasis on the class nature of the domination of corporations. Although large parts of the citizenry are turned off by politics, no assessment is made as to the depth of their disaffection or understanding. Are citizens alarmed with consumerism as the dominant mode of life? Is there really much in the way of an untapped potential to transform the economic and political system? Is there a noticeable path for citizens to recapture the political process and minimize reliance on largely ineffectual, random protests that are easily shunted aside by TNCs? Those answers are crucial if neoliberalism is to be countered.
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