The Leadership Struggle Between Charles Koch And Koch Industries

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

One of the ways that people operate in the political frame is through the obtaining and use of scarce resources within the organization. Scare resources can include things like money (salaries or budgets), positions (such as promotions), larger offices, more office supplies, access to help such as secretaries, as well as intangible things like status, influence, and overall power within the organization (Bolman and Deal 18). Wal-Mart has plenty of resources because it is a large organization. However, those resources are concentrated in just a handful of people at the top of the corporate chain. Most of the resources do not flow down to the common store

According Forbes Magazine, in the year 2010, a year that was not even a presidential election, the Koch brothers contributed over $45,000,000 to campaigns through a group they deemed “Americans for Prosperity” (Poole). With this money going towards the men in congress almost any legislation proposed by President Obama has been stalled, resulting in what is known as a policy gridlock. Whatever the case, seeing the huge money being contributed by individuals or their businesses, makes the campaigns run by people such as Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders more admirable for not being bought out by big money.

The Rockefellers feared the temptations of wealth, yet a visitor once described their estate as the kind of place God would have built if only he'd had the money. They amassed a fortune that outraged a Democratic nation, then gave it all away reshaping America. They were the closest thing the country had to a royal family, but the Rockefellers shunned the public eye. For decades, the Rockefeller name was despised in America, associated with John D. Rockefeller Sr.'s feared monopoly, Standard Oil. By the end of his life, Rockefeller had given away half of his fortune. But even his vast philanthropy could not erase the memory of his predatory

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

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.

There has been a lot of fuss over big business influencing the government in the United States lately. Now there is no doubt that the business elite have some influence on politics. It can even be traced back to the early 1900’s, when “the People’s Party had disintegrated, but many writers and activists have continued to echo the Populists’ central thesis: that the U.S. democratic political system is in fact dominated by business elites” (). Although there are countless arguments to go against this idea, the questions still comes up today: Is government dominated by big business? Political Scientist G. William Domhoff believes that government is dominated by big business. More specifically, Domhoff believes that owners and top-level managers in income-producing properties are not only dominant power figures in the US, but they also have inordinate influence in the federal government (). Another political scientist however, Sheldon Kamieniecki, believes otherwise. He states that businesses do not really get involved in policies that affect them; and even when they do, their success rate at influencing policies is not consistent. In fact, he believes that other factions have more influence on government policies ().

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.

We first must analyze the decision process and execution of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) to hire Paul Levy as CEO. The hospital was in desperate need of a competent leader who possessed the qualities that would turn around and save the not-for-profit company. In comparing the situation faced by BIDMC with Groysberg’s “Are Leaders Portable?” article, it becomes clear Levy possesses many “portable” qualities. Through the political frame we can see Levy has many political ties within the Boston area which making him a well respected and recognizable figure. The numerous connections he has within the area along with being familiar with Boston

A corporation is an artificial person established by the law. It nurses the same rights as humans contrariwise; they are not equally responsible for their actions. A corporation cannot face the same charges a human would: if illegal actions took place. Bakan illustrates the traits of a corporation to closely resemble the traits of a psychopathic individual human being. These traits are, but not limited to: “1) unconcern for others, 2) incapable of maintaining relationships, 3) disregard for others safety/health, 4) repeated lying, 5) incapable of experiencing guilt, and 6) failure to conform to social norms.” Therefore, executive’s means for earning high returns for shareholders can be seen as a trait of a psychopath. Yet, the corporation’s attributes are not based on the qualities of the executives outside of their careers. As Bakan would say, “the people who run corporations are, for the most part, good people, moral people.”

One of the key concepts of Commanding Heights is that capitalism needs to include ethical restraint (Scott). It is very clear that the lead players in the 2008 crisis did not display ethics or restraint. Many individuals displayed a lack of ethics because they were willing to engage in conflicts of interest. For example, academic leaders often served as consultants

The power elite is able to exert power over society. The power elite’s control over politics demonstrates how inequality is functional. This validates the class-domination theory of power, which is distributed based on economic power. By controlling economic resources, the power elites political influence in government shapes law and those involved in government to the power elites benefit. In today’s American society these laws have impacted both the corporate community and the elite. Furthermore, the author’s portrayal of the elite displayed how the elite have control concerning choices in government policies, elections, and laws.

Enron was often praised for pioneering a more libertarian view, an influence often accredited to a man by the name of Jeffery Skilling. Being the CEO of an Enron secondary company, “Enron Finance” (Probert), Skilling possessed the ability to directly influence the very structure of the natural

Have you ever wondered what role politics and power play in organizations? When used effectively they can be compatible in reaching the organizations goals. Power is defined as the ability to get someone to do something you want done or the ability to make things happen in the way you want them. (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, Chap. 15). Power is important within organizations because it is the way in which management influences individuals to make things happen. When power and influence combine, most of the time 'politics' become involved in some manner which may pose some problems. Organizational politics is best described as management influenced by self-interest through the use

Kelly (2013) segments Buffett’s leadership transition into seven stages: opportunist, diplomat, expert, achiever, individualist, strategist, and alchemist. During the first four stages, Buffett concerned himself with growing his investment and not on the impact of the organization’s reputation, employees’ welfare, or community and is why this category is unilateral power (Kelly, 2013). In the early 1960’s, his transactional leadership style tarnished his reputation following the sale of Dempster Mill (Kelly, 2013).