8/14/96, Salvatore Babones wrote:
>Just a note on corporatism:
>
>Our "democracy" may be warped by corporatism, but it was our democracies
>that created corporatism. Under a *liberal* state (whether democratic or
>not) the market is the arena of individuals, individuals who may
>manipulate government, but who never attain the degree of power that is
>weilded by modern corporations. The corporate form (perpetual life,
>limited liability, impersonal control, in the end, immunity from political
>borders and control) was granted by government. If the corporate form has
>gone awry, one alternative to socialist world-government is liberal,
>capitalist, particularist government. No government is bound to empower
>the corporate form; we've just grown so used to it that when we think of
>business, we think of corporations.
Dear Salvatore,
Could you say more of what you mean by "liberal, capitalist,
particularist government" ?
-rkm
Here are a few snippits from "MuseLetter Number 52 / April 1996" -- "The
New Populism".
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At last I am able to report hopeful signs on the political horizon. Over
the past year or so a new movement has begun to emerge, one aimed at the
main power structures of modern industrial society-the vast multinational
corporations that, for all practical purposes, now rule the world. This
movement is hardly a large one, but it is well informed and intelligently
directed, and it is well worth knowing about.
....
How Corporations Came to Rule the World
The corporation was invented early in the colonial era as a grant of
privilege extended by the crown to a group of investors-ususally, as a way
to finance a trade expedition. The corporation limited the liability of
investors to the amount of their investment, a right not held by ordinary
citizens. Corporate charters set out the specific rights and obligations of
the individual corporation, including the amount to be paid to the crown in
return for the privilege granted. Thus were born the East India Company,
which led the British colonization of India, and Hudson's Bay Company,
which accomplished the same purpose in Canada. Almost from the beginning,
Britain deployed state military power to further corporate interests-a
practice that has continued to the present. Also from the outset,
corporations began pressuring government to expand corporate rights and to
limit corporate responsibilities.
....
The American revolutionaries resolved that the
authority to charter corporations should lie not with governors, judges, or
generals, but only with elected legislatures. At first, such charters as
were granted were for a fixed time, and legislatures spelled out the rules
each business should follow.
....
In 1886, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that corporations were henceforth
to be considered "persons" under the law, with all of the consititutional
rights that designation implies. The 14th amendment to the Constitution,
passed to give former slaves equal rights, was actually invoked in their
behalf only a few times; corporations invoked it repeatedly.
....
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