Corporate capitalism is a term used in social science and economics to describe a capitalist marketplace characterized by hierarchical, bureaucratic corporations, which are legally required to pursue profit. Corporate capitalism became the norm in society after their colonization of ownership of the mass media.
Most businesses in the United States are not corporations, but unincorporated sole proprietorships. However this is not an indication of the proportion of the economy or labour market that falls within corporate or joint stock company control.[1] In the developed world, corporations dominate the marketplace, comprising 50 percent or more of all businesses. Those businesses which are not corporations contain the same bureaucratic structure of corporations, but there is usually a sole owner or group of owners who are liable to bankruptcy and criminal charges relating to their business. Corporations have limited liability and remain less regulated and accountable than sole proprietorships.
Corporations are usually called public entities when parts of their business can be bought in the form of shares on the stock market. This is done as a way of raising capital to finance the investments of the corporation. The shareholders appoint the executives of the corporation, who are the ones running the corporation via a hierarchical chain of power, where the bulk of investor decisions are made at the top, and have effects on those beneath them.
Many social scientists have criticized corporations for failing to act in the interests of the people, and their existence seems to circumvent the principles of democracy, which assumes equal power relations between individuals in a society.[2] Thomas Jefferson, one of the founders of the United States democratic system, said "I hope we shall crush ... in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country".[3]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/smallbus.html
- ^ Bakan, Joel (writer) The Corporation (2003) (Documentary)
- ^ http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff5.htm
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