Abstract

The article focuses on industrial reorganization. Evidence shows that there has been a major decline in general public enthusiasm for big business, and a growing critical attitude even among the more conservative professional authorities. At the same time, there is by no means a clear majority opinion against the corporate giants or in favor of any particular new policy initiative or alternative arrangement. This changing, and increasingly critical, attitude toward big business has been reflected in a variety of new policy initiatives and proposals. These range from such modest and ideologically neutral ideas as federal corporate chartering to schemes for highly detailed regulation of business practices. Paradoxically, the mildest proposals have gone nowhere at all, whereas major modifications in traditional business prerogatives have already occurred in such varied areas as wage-price administration, consumer protection, and environmental controls. By contrast, explicit proposals for industrial reorganization, including de-concentration of concentrated industries and sectors, have been openly presented as challenges to conventional viewpoints and traditional political and economic arrangements.