Business, Politics, and Society

How much power does business exercise in Britain and the United States? Are giant firms that operate on a global scale beyond the control of elected governments? Are political parties in the pocket of business interests? All these questions go to the heart of the viability of a modern democracy, and have been given increased urgency since the end of 2007 and the economic crisis that has reverberated around the world. Business, Politics, and Society compares business and politics in two of the most important capitalist democracies: the United States and the United Kingdom. It introduces the big analytical and moral issues involved in the study of business power; traces the historical origins of businesspolitics in the two nations; examines the role of giant firms, and the relationship between business and political parties; describes the special politics of the small business sector; scrutinizes the changing social and cultural environment of business; and sums up by raising problems of legitimacy andreward that are now the stuff of public policy. Boxed features in each chapter also extend the range of book, to business politics in the European Union, and to national systems beyond the United States and the United Kingdom. The book will be invaluable for students of business systems who now need to grasp the political setting of business, and to students of American and British politics, who now need to grasp the impact of business power on the workings of democratic government.

This sophisticated analysis of the power of business in liberal democracy raises questions for pluralists and radicals alike.

Michael Moran is WJM Mackenzie Professor of Government at the University of Manchester, UK. He has written widely on the politics of the modern economy, and on politics in the United Kingdom and the United States.