Corporate dreams
Subtitle: big business in American democracy from the Great Depression to the great recession
By: James Hoopes
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New Brunswick, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 234
ISBN-13: 9780813551302
Subjects: Politics and government; History; Political ethics; Corporate culture; Leadership; Moral conditions; Business and politics; Case studies
Description: Public trust in corporations plummeted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, when "Lehman Brothers" and "General Motors" became dirty words for many Americans. In Corporate Dreams, James Hoopes argues that Americans still place too much faith in corporations and, especially, in the idea of "values-based leadership" favored by most CEOs. The danger of corporations, he suggests, lies not just in their economic power, but also in how their confused and undemocratic values are infecting Americans' visions of good governance. Corporate Dreams proposes that Americans need to radically rethink their relationships with big business and the government. Rather than buying into the corporate notion of "values-based leadership," we should view corporate leaders with the same healthy suspicion that our democratic political tradition teaches us to view our political leaders. Unfortunately, the trend is moving the other way. Corporate notions of leadership are invading our democratic political culture when it should be the reverse. To diagnose the cause and find a cure for our toxic attachment to corporate models of leadership, Hoopes goes back to the root of the problem, offering a comprehensive history of corporate culture in America, from the Great Depression to today's Great Recession. Combining a historian's careful eye with an insider's perspective on the business world, this provocative volume tracks changes in government economic policy, changes in public attitudes toward big business, and changes in how corporate executives view themselves. Whether examining the rise of Leadership Development programs or recounting JFK's Pyrrhic victory over U.S. Steel, Hoopes tells a compelling story of how America lost its way, ceding authority to the policies and values of corporate culture. But he also shows us how it's not too late to return to our democratic ideals-and that it's not too late to restore the American dream.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The corporate American dream at its height and in its origins; title: The corporate American dream; title: Corporate and national character; title: From public purpose to private profit; title: Corporations as enemies of the free market; title: Corporate failure and government fix; title: Corporate crashes; title: Managers versus markets; title: Corporations blow their chance to end the depression; title: Roosevelt's confused anti-corporatism; title: The corporation strikes back; title: The right to manage; title: Corporations recover their moral authority; title: Killing the unions softly; title: Creating Reagan and his voters; title: What manner of man(ager)?; title: Masking the arrogance of power; title: Responsibility versus profit at general motors; title: Critics of managerial character; title: JFK's pyrrhic victory over U.S. steel; title: The corporation in the wilderness again; title: McNamara and the staffers; title: The false confidence of the anti-corporatists; title: Corporate America loses world supremacy; title: Laying the groundwork for the corporation's cultural comeback; title: Leadership; title: Managing by values; title: Creating the concept of corporate culture; title: Inventing the leadership development industry; title: Reagan aids corporations by bashing government; title: Entrepreneurship; title: Supply siders versus the big corporation; title: Reengineering the corporation; title: George W. Bush, Enron, and the great recession; title: Can the corporate American dream be saved?.