How Did Corporations Become The Most Powerful

Even with the many of the nation’s first lawmakers advocating for oligarchical rule, the fact that the United States would ultimately become an oligarchy, whether they wanted or not, has proven inevitable, or so the iron law of oligarchy suggests. Proposed by Robert Michels, the iron law states that no matter how complex or well thought out a democratic government may be, no large organization can function properly as a democracy; it will always devolve into oligarchical rule by what he referred to as the “leadership class.” Famously stating in 1911

I find it ridiculous that I have to say this: corporations are not people. And yet, the supreme court seems to disagree. In 2010, the supreme court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that grants corporations the rights of citizens. Since then, many people have rightfully asked for the abolition of Corporate Personhood. Corporations are not sentient beings and have no moral code or understanding of the law; therefore, they are not responsible for any legal discretions: people running the corporations are. People can consciously make decisions that are harmful to others but may never have to reconcile for it because they were doing it under the company. Here’s the thing: corporations can't go to jail. The only way to make corporations pay is to literally make them pay fines. Even lawsuits worth millions of dollars can be nothing to large companies with vast amounts of wealth. Corporations will just pay the fines and continue functioning as before.

Should Corporations be Considered People? The recent uproar over whether corporations are people comes from the Citizens United decision. Although we often hear about how this case allows an influx of corporate funds, it is safe to assume that very few people have actually read the opinion. And though the direct and indirect impact on the lives and liberties of the people will forever be affected by allowing corporate influence on their own governing, most go about their daily consumption with barely a thought to the immense impact this has on the land of the free.

Many controversial topics have surfaced recently, but one that tends to fly under the radar is lobbying. Lobbying is defined as a group of persons who work or conduct a campaign to influence members of a legislature to vote according to a group’s special interests (“Lobby”). Although average citizens are not fully aware of the issue, it is quite contentious in politics. For those who are against it, they believe that restrictions should be placed on lobbying because it distorts democracy. Lobbyists use money and cost-effective strategies to sway the opinions of lawmakers. Others see lobbyists as effective, political tour guides who help pass legislation. An analysis of the lobbying process reveals the outcomes are often

As seen in Document C, in 1887, a labor leader illustrated the enormous amount of control large corporations had not just in the American economy, but also in American society as a whole, specifically in politics. The amount of control and influence these businesses had on politics was massive. As seen in Document D, Joseph Keppler’s political cartoon from 1889, shows the massive corruption in the political system to the degree that he stated that the U.S. Senate was no longer for the people, but now for the big business monopolies. The American people responded to the unrivaled influence of corporations in politics by forming political and economic organizations that were intended to restrain the monumental influence of big

“We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when any one engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall himself be given a square deal.” (Teddy Roosevelt). Teddy Roosevelt emphasized the fact that big business had not been giving its workers or its consumers a fair deal and that big business had been taking power away from the people. The Gilded Age began an era of big business that negatively affected the working class men, women and family. During the rise of big business the power between individuals started to greatly differ as the rich got more power and the poor got less, with the rich’s newly found wealth their trusts were able to control whole industries and finally the

In the post-Civil War United States, corporations grew significantly in numbers, size, and influence. This led to a drastic increase in the production of American goods, unskilled labor, and overall total amount of wealth in the United States. During this period known as the “Gilded Age”, the presence of big business resulted in in economic and social class divisions and widespread political corruption that led to the establishment of many political and economic organizations that wanted to reduce the influence of big business on America.

Between the 1870'S to the 1900’S the rise of big corporations whom had a lot of control over politics and the economy, increased. In determining the full impact of corporations in America, a person must asset to the extent some went to achieve richness and have such a big influence in the government as well as the economy. Politically the corporations had control over what was said in the government, economically the corporations took advantage of the poor factory workers, and farmers , by lowering wages and raising prices to export crops. Corporations began to ignite political, and economic issues in post industrial america.

Nowadays, after the passing of several bills constraining the actions of corporations, acting in a similar manner would pose several legal and ethical issues. This is why, Freeman argues, this ancient idea of managerial capitalism is no longer effective.

Reading G. William Domhoff’s Who Rules America?: The Triumph of the Corporate Rich was an intriguing and challenging experience for me. My limited knowledge base of the American political class system mostly stems from high school US History classes and listening to my mom’s stories of her experiences in the corporate world. Therefore, I am aware that due to my prior lack of knowledge on the topics presented in Domhoff’s book, I may have misjudged some of his finer points. Part of my struggles may be largely due to the fact that Domhoff’s intended audience for Who Rules America? is other experts in the field of understanding the sociology of the corporate elite and their resources of power. However, I believe that the book has given me a better, if not complete, understanding of the corporate elite and how they stay in power.

The ideas that corporations are viewed as people in the eyes of the law seems like a farfetched idea. However, with closer examination one cannot help but wonder if this is truly becoming the case. Since the 1950’s the rights of corporations have been expanding through multiple court cases that have charted the way for more recent cases like Citizens United v. FEC and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores . To better understand the notion that corporations are sometimes viewed as people it is important to understand the definition of a corporation. In the dictionary, a corporation is defined as a number of persons united in one body for a purpose . Even though it is hard for many to view a corporation as a “person”, it is undeniable that corporations

With advanced technology comes the globalization and moving businesses to third world countries from U.S. This movement caused the rate of unemployment to rise and people see themselves in struggle to take care of their families. These issue are the complex of corporations in America. After seeing the movie (The Corporation) based on the book written by Canadian Professor Joel Bakan, we see that corporations are institutions that creates great wealth and profit but in the other hand causes enormous and hidden harm to people. Corporation cannot be imprisoned for criminal activities. Corporations are not humans they are designed by law to be concerned only for their stockholders. This is the issues that we see in our modern society the rich

In this nation’s majority of experience, large corporations were not prevalent until the early 1900’s, and compared to present day their influence was not as huge as it is today. It is true, money has always been a large role in campaigning, but now it is a large deciding role, and quite possibly makes up most of the decision for

The purpose of the textbook, Who Rules America? by G. William Domhoff, is to explain his theory of Class Domination. My essay emphasises the relation of social class to power, the existence of a Corporate community, the relationship of the Corporate community to the upper class, and various methods used by the Corporate community to dominate the U.S Political System. Furthermore, my essay will discuss the potential limits to corporate power in America.

In the book, The Corporation Joel Bakan presents arguments, that corporations are nothing but institutional pathological psychopaths that are “a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies.” Their main responsibility is maximizing profit for their stockholders and ignoring the means to achieve this goal, portrays them as “psychopathic.” Bakan argues that, corporations are psychopaths, corporate social responsibility is illegal, and that corporations are able to manipulate anyone, even the government.