Gangs of America The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy

by Nace, Ted

• ISBN13: 9781576753194
• ISBN10: 1576753190
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-11
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Summary

Surpassing the state and the church, the corporation has become the core institution of the modern world. Written in an accessible style, Gangs of America scrutinizes the legal framework of the corporation and untangles questions about how and why the corporation evolved as it did. A new chapter, "So What's the Alternative?," provides a framework for assessing the alternatives to corporate dominance.

Author Biography

While working for the u.s. forest service during high school, Ted Nace learned about the plans of several major corporations to develop coal strip mines and other energy projects near his hometown of Dickinson, North Dakota. During graduate school, Nace worked for the Environmental Defense Fund, where he helped develop computerized simulations that demonstrated the investor and ratepayer benefits of re- placing coal-fired power plants with alternative energy programs. The EDF simulations led to the cancellation of a multi-billion-dollar coal- based power complex proposed by two California utilities. After completing his graduate studies, Nace worked for the Dakota Resource Council, a citizens’ group concerned about the impacts of energy development on agriculture and rural communities.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	IX
INTRODUCTION	1	(10)
ONE How Did Corporations Get So Much Power?	11	(8)
In which the author reads a poll, feels provoked and befuddled, and organizes his investigation
TWO From Street Fights to Empire	19	(11)
The British roots of the American corporation (1267-1773)
THREE The Ultimate Reality Show	30	(8)
The brutal history of the Virginia Company (1607-1624)
FOUR Why the Colonists Feared Corporations ...	38	(8)
In which the citizens of Boston demonstrate the use of the hatchet as an anti-monopoly device (1770-1773)
FIVE ...And What They Did About It	46	(10)
How the framers of the American system restrained corporate power (1787-1850)
SIX The Genius	56	(14)
The man who reinvented the corporation (1850-1880)
SEVEN Superpowers	70	(17)
The corporation acquires nine powerful attributes (1860-1900)
EIGHT The Judge	87	(15)
Stephen Field and the politics of personhood (1868-1885)
NINE The Court Reporter	102	(8)
Who really decided the Supreme Court's most important corporate case? (1886)
TEN The Lavender-Vested Turkey Gobbler	110	(8)
How a "majestic, super-eminent" lawyer deceived the Supreme Court (1883)
ELEVEN Survival of the Fittest	118	(19)
"People power" versus a social Darwinist agenda (1886-1937)
TWELVE The Revolt of the Bosses	137	(15)
The new mobilization of corporate political power (1971-2002)
THIRTEEN Speech = Money	152	(9)
Using the First Amendment to block campaign finance reform
FOURTEEN Judicial Yoga	161	(17)
The tangled logic of corporate rights
FIFTEEN Crime Wave	178	(9)
The roots of the scandals of 2002
SIXTEEN Global Rule	187	(10)
How international trade agreements are creating new corporate rights
SEVENTEEN Fighting Back	197	(22)
A movement emerges to challenge corporate hegemony
EIGHTEEN Intelligent, Amoral, Evolving	219	(11)
The hazards of persistent dynamic entities
NINETEEN So What's the Alternative?	230	(13)
The vision of economic democracy
APPENDIX A Supreme Court Decisions	243	(8)
APPENDIX B The Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment	251	(2)
NOTES	253	(23)
REFERENCES	276	(6)
INDEX	282	(16)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR	298