Abstract

As society grows more complex, the big corporation thrives and amasses political as well as economic powers, which rival those of the state. To date, it has been the managerial elite who exercises these vast powers. Tomorrow, as union pension funds and bank-administered trusts buy controlling blocks of stock in the big, blue chip firms, the corporate giants may have new masters. Politics is a broad, and perhaps even classical, term for the customs, usages and traditions, for the policies, relationships and arrangements through which men and societies live and are governed and by which men work at shaping their destinies. Partisan politics are a part of this broader term, but not the part with which this paper is primarily concerned. Where the power of government is limited by the constitution and by responsibility to the electorate, the limitations on corporate power are more informal in nature, for example: having to obtain funds in the capital market, competition, public opinion, and the overriding political power of the state.