Review: The American Corporation
| Date | 01 June 1972 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207202700211 |
| Published date | 01 June 1972 |
| Author | Susan Strange |
| Subject Matter | Review |
308
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
THE
AMERICAN
CORPORATION
Its
Power,
Its
Money,
Its
Politics
Richard
J.
Barber
New
York:
Dutton
[Toronto:
Clarke,
Irwin],
1970,
X,
309pp,
$9.50
"Business
has
gone
international,
the
countries
of
the
world
have
not"
(p
284).
That
is
the
problem
in
a
nutshell.
Mr
Barber's
thesis
could
not
be
more
simply
put.
To
give
it
depth
and detail,
he
has
described
-
in
a
crisp
and
vivid
style
that
only
sometimes
degenerates
into
sloppy
jour-
nalese
-
some
of
the
important
changes
that
have
taken
place
in the
American
corporation
over
the
last ten
or
fifteen
years.
He
accurately
observes,
and
demonstrates
with
fact
and
figures,
that
there
has
been
a
significant
shift
from
a
multitude
of
small
and
medium-size
single-
product
enterprises
responsive
in
large
measure to
the
pressures
of
an
open
market
to
a
shrinking group
of
multi-product
producers
so
large
as
to
be
immune
to
those pressures.
As
a
consequence
of
this
trend
toward
oligopoly
by
conglomerates,
the
conventional
theory
of
business
has
lost its
relevance
(p
52),
as
indeed
has
the
conventional
theory
of
inter-
national
trade in
face
of
the
tremendous expansion
of
what
is
loosely
and
euphemistically
called
international
(ie
extraterritorial)
produc-
tion.
Institutional
finance,
meanwhile,
is
also
growing
fast,
so
that
many
companies-
Sears
Roebuck
is
an interesting
example (pp
31-2)
-
in
effect
own
themselves
through
their
own
pension
funds,
thus
adding
to
the irresponsibility and
unaccountability
of
top
management.
And
as
the
share
of
government
in
business
and
its
contribution
to
industrial
re-
search
and
development expands,
the
independence
of
universities
is
jeopardized
and
their
power
to
criticize,
oppose,
or
influence
is
conse-
quently
diminished.
None
of
this
is
particularly
new
or original.
Galbraith
and
Kindle-
berger
have been
over
much
of
the
ground
before:
a
more
striking
and
scholarly
study
of
the
same
phenomena
was
made
in
Seymour
Melman's
book,
called
assertively
Pentagon Capitalism
(1970).
But
as
a
short,
read-
able descriptive
introduction,
this
will
be
found
useful
and
perhaps
reach
a
broader
readership.
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