Strong Managers, Weak Owners
"Economic theory appeared to predict that the American version [of capitalism, in which firms feed on a huge and liquid stockmarket] should be the most efficient. This view stemmed from [Berle and Means] inThe Modern Corporation and Private Property... [and] held sway for the next fifty years.... Roe ... takes this debate a giant step forward. Far from being the inevitable winner of a Darwinian struggle, argues Roe, the Berle-Means corporation owes its existence to American politics, and in particular to a deeply ingrained popular mistrust of concentrated financial power."--The Economist"Roe ... argues persuasively that old-fashioned politics ... play[s] the key role in building a structure of corporate finance....Strong Managers, Weak Ownersdoes for corporate governance what Alfred Chandler'sThe Visible Handdid for the corporation: makes history essential to understanding current practice and policy."--Robert Teitelman,Institutional Investor