David C. Korten: When Corporations Rule the World
Berrett Koehler, 3rd ed., 2015 (1995)
Publisher’s Description:
Our Choice: Democracy or Corporate Rule
A handful of corporations and financial institutions command an ever-greater concentration of economic and political power in an assault against markets, democracy, and life. It’s a “suicide economy,” says David Korten, that destroys the very foundations of its own existence. The bestselling 1995 edition of When Corporations Rule the World helped launch a global resistance against corporate domination. In this twentieth-anniversary edition, Korten shares insights from his personal experience as a participant in the growing movement for a New Economy. A new introduction documents the further concentration of wealth and corporate power since 1995 and explores why our institutions resolutely resist even modest reform. A new conclusion chapter outlines high-leverage opportunities for breakthrough change.
Contents:
A Choice for Life Prologue: A Personal Journey Introduction: Capitalism and the Suicide Economy PART I: COWBOYS IN A SPACESHIP 1. From Hope to Crisis 2. End of the Open Frontier 3. The Growth Illusion PART II: CONTEST FOR SOVEREIGNTY 4. Rise of Corporate Power in America 5. Assault of the Corporate Libertarians 6. The Decline of Democratic Pluralism 7. Illusions of the Cloud Minders PART III: CORPORATE COLONIALISM 8. Dreaming of Global Empires 9. Building Elite Consensus 10. Buying Out Democracy 11. Marketing the World 12. Adjusting the Poor 13. Guaranteeing Corporate Rights PART IV: A ROGUE FINANCIAL SYSTEM 14. The Money Game 15. Predatory Finance 16. Corporate Cannibalism 17. Managed Competition PART V: NO PLACE FOR PEOPLE 18. Race to the Bottom 19. The End of Inefficiency 20. People with No Place PART VI: TO RECLAIM OUR POWER 21. The Ecological Revolution 22. Economies Are for Living 23. An Awakened Civil Society 24. Agenda for Democracy Conclusion: A Living Economy for Living Earth Epilogue: Our Need for Meaning
Review Quotes:
“This is a ‘must-read’ book–a searing indictment of an unjust international economic order, not by a wild-eyed idealistic left-winger, but by a sober scion of the establishment with impeccable credentials. It left me devastated but also very hopeful. Something can be done to create a more just economic order.” Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu
“Anyone serious about the systemic crisis we now face ought to read this updated version today. Korten captures the devastating and increasingly threatening dynamics of the corporate-dominated global system and has offered a vibrant, well-written, and important strategy for moving us beyond its destructive economic, social, and ecological logic.” Gar Alperovitz, author of What Then Must We Do?
“If every corporate leader who believes implicitly that consumerism is the path to happiness (and that rampant development is the road to global prosperity) were to read When Corporations Rule the World with an open mind, that world just might have a chance of becoming a better place for us all.” Toronto Globe and Mail
About the Author:
David Korten, author and activist, is co-founder and board chair of YES! Magazine, co-founder and co-chair of the New Economy Working Group, president of the Living Economies Forum, an associate fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, a member of the Club of Rome, and founding board member emeritus of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. A 20th anniversary edition of his classic international best seller When Corporations Rule the World will launch in June 2015. His other books include Change the Story, Change the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, and The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism.
David has MBA and Ph.D. degrees from the Stanford Business School, and in his earlier career served as a captain in the US Air Force, a Harvard Business School professor, a Ford Foundation project specialist, and Asia regional adviser on development management to the U.S. Agency for International Development. He lived and worked for 21 years as a development professional in Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Philippines, and Indonesia.