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The New Corporation: How "Good" Corporations Are Bad for Democracy
A deeply informed and unflinching look at the way corporations have slyly rebranded themselves as socially conscious entities ready to tackle society's problems, while CEO compensation soars, income inequality is at all-time highs, and democracy sits in a precarious situation.
“A very important book, an arresting study directed to a central issue of the times” (Noam Chomsky), from the author of The The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power .
Over the last decade and a half, business leaders have been calling for a new kind of capitalism. With income inequality soaring, wages stagnating, and a climate crisis escalating, they realized that they had to make social and environmental values the very core of their messaging. The problem is corporations are still, first and foremost, concerned with their bottom line.
In lucid and engaging prose, Joel Bakan documents how increasing corporate freedom encroaches on individual liberty and democracy. Through deep research and interviews with both top executives and their sharpest critics, he exposes the inhumanity and destructive force of the current order--profit-driven privatization subverting the public good, governments neglecting duties to protect the environment, the increasing alienation we experience as every aspect of life is economized, and how the Covid-19 pandemic lays bare the unjust fault lines of our corporate-led society.
Beyond diagnosing major problems, in The New Corporation Bakan narrates a hopeful path forward. He reveals how citizens around the world are fighting back and making gains in ways that bolster democracy and benefit ordinary citizens rather than the corporate elite.
“A very important book, an arresting study directed to a central issue of the times” (Noam Chomsky), from the author of The The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power .
Over the last decade and a half, business leaders have been calling for a new kind of capitalism. With income inequality soaring, wages stagnating, and a climate crisis escalating, they realized that they had to make social and environmental values the very core of their messaging. The problem is corporations are still, first and foremost, concerned with their bottom line.
In lucid and engaging prose, Joel Bakan documents how increasing corporate freedom encroaches on individual liberty and democracy. Through deep research and interviews with both top executives and their sharpest critics, he exposes the inhumanity and destructive force of the current order--profit-driven privatization subverting the public good, governments neglecting duties to protect the environment, the increasing alienation we experience as every aspect of life is economized, and how the Covid-19 pandemic lays bare the unjust fault lines of our corporate-led society.
Beyond diagnosing major problems, in The New Corporation Bakan narrates a hopeful path forward. He reveals how citizens around the world are fighting back and making gains in ways that bolster democracy and benefit ordinary citizens rather than the corporate elite.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2020
37 people are currently reading
649 people want to read
About the author
Joel Bakan
12 books95 followersJoel Bakan is a professor of law at the University of British Columbia, and an internationally renowned legal scholar and commentator. A former Rhodes Scholar and law clerk to Chief Justice Brian Dickson of the Supreme Court of Canada, Bakan has law degrees from Oxford, Dalhousie, and Harvard. His critically acclaimed international hit, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (Free Press, 2004), electrified readers around the world (it was published in over 20 languages), and became a bestseller in several countries. The book inspired a feature documentary film, The Corporation, written by Bakan and co-created with Mark Achbar, which won numerous awards, including best foreign documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, and was a critical and box office success. Bakan’s highly regarded scholarly work includes Just Words: Constitutional Rights and Social Wrongs (University of Toronto Press, 1997), as well as textbooks, edited collections, and numerous articles in leading legal and social science journals. His new book, Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children, will be available in August, 2011. A frequent recipient of awards for both his writing and teaching, Bakan has worked on landmark legal cases and government policy, and served regularly as a media commentator, appearing on national television and radio. He is a popular and accomplished public speaker who has, over the last few years, addressed business, government, academic, and activist audiences in the United States and abroad. Bakan, who is also a professional jazz guitarist, grew up in East Lansing, Michigan and now lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife, Rebecca Jenkins, and their two children, Myim and Sadie.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
May 18, 2024
"Pessimism is surrender, and despair defeat.”
This book could be summarized in a few bulletpoints:
-Historically corporations commit crimes is because they know “the ones who get caught typically don’t pay as much as they made from their wrongdoing.”
-Green-washing and corporate social justice is a way to undercut any political momentum from anything that would threaten their bottom line.
tl;dr corporations are not your friends, and are only loyal to their bottom line. Any claims of being able to self-regulate are false.
This book could be summarized in a few bulletpoints:
-Historically corporations commit crimes is because they know “the ones who get caught typically don’t pay as much as they made from their wrongdoing.”
-Green-washing and corporate social justice is a way to undercut any political momentum from anything that would threaten their bottom line.
tl;dr corporations are not your friends, and are only loyal to their bottom line. Any claims of being able to self-regulate are false.
August 19, 2024
“Pessimism is surrender, and despair defeat.” A big reason that historically corporations commit crimes is because they know “the ones who get caught typically don’t pay as much as they made from their wrongdoing.” Corporate motivation: breaking laws when the financial benefits outweigh the costs. Poll results: “43% of Americans agree that socialism would be good for the country, among Democrats that number is 57%.” Imagine CNN telling you that. And polls also show a majority want free health care, free college tuition, and “a tax system that doesn’t benefit the rich.” Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor says that defunding public hospitals, schools and libraries through privatization further empowers the police to resolve the resultant crisis and “racialized poverty is thus criminalized.”
“Growing social division fuels hate.” Today, if they got an unexpected four-hundred-dollar bill, half of Americans would go into debt or have to sell something. “Prior to Uber, taxi drivers in big cities made $12 to $17 per hour. Now they average $9 to $11 per hour.” “In 2008, it was a novel notion that corporations should help govern society.” “Over the last two decades, corporations have promised to care about society and solve its problems”: how that can happen if the first priority of corporations is profit, has yet to be determined. Corporations push privatization, as though it actually somehow helps common people not invested in privatization. Robert Reich calls “one of the biggest lies being told” that corporations will help people better than the government can. That lie boosts corporate profits and broadens corporate control over society. But how does that happen when corporations first look after their own interests? The author states that even “good” corporations are bad for democracy.
Bill “Gates has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into privatizing schools. His backing helps fuel the charter school movement in the United States and more recently in poor countries.” What Gates calls “creative capitalism” is Big Tech (like Gates) wanting teachers removed in order to cut costs and increase profit for tech, and to use poor people around the world as a source of income. “Obama embraced the ‘new’ corporation’s catechism of small government and big markets rather than its New Deal opposite.”
On page 155, the author discusses Arab Spring (and by extension Color Revolutions) as an “all good” thing by ignoring all intentional manipulation of Arab Spring (and Color Revolutions) by the CIA and NGO’s under its control. Such CIA involvement is explained in the books of F. William Engdahl. I could only give this Bakan book three stars (if I wasn’t such a huge fan of Joel’s earlier The Corporation book, I’d give this book two stars, as it is only ok). I have trouble understanding why two of my heroes (Noam Chomsky and Vandana Shiva) liked it so much. All I learned from this book, as you can see, was three meager paragraphs worth of interesting facts. Instead of this 2020 book, read Joel Bakan’s earlier book The Corporation which I happily gave five stars.
“Growing social division fuels hate.” Today, if they got an unexpected four-hundred-dollar bill, half of Americans would go into debt or have to sell something. “Prior to Uber, taxi drivers in big cities made $12 to $17 per hour. Now they average $9 to $11 per hour.” “In 2008, it was a novel notion that corporations should help govern society.” “Over the last two decades, corporations have promised to care about society and solve its problems”: how that can happen if the first priority of corporations is profit, has yet to be determined. Corporations push privatization, as though it actually somehow helps common people not invested in privatization. Robert Reich calls “one of the biggest lies being told” that corporations will help people better than the government can. That lie boosts corporate profits and broadens corporate control over society. But how does that happen when corporations first look after their own interests? The author states that even “good” corporations are bad for democracy.
Bill “Gates has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into privatizing schools. His backing helps fuel the charter school movement in the United States and more recently in poor countries.” What Gates calls “creative capitalism” is Big Tech (like Gates) wanting teachers removed in order to cut costs and increase profit for tech, and to use poor people around the world as a source of income. “Obama embraced the ‘new’ corporation’s catechism of small government and big markets rather than its New Deal opposite.”
On page 155, the author discusses Arab Spring (and by extension Color Revolutions) as an “all good” thing by ignoring all intentional manipulation of Arab Spring (and Color Revolutions) by the CIA and NGO’s under its control. Such CIA involvement is explained in the books of F. William Engdahl. I could only give this Bakan book three stars (if I wasn’t such a huge fan of Joel’s earlier The Corporation book, I’d give this book two stars, as it is only ok). I have trouble understanding why two of my heroes (Noam Chomsky and Vandana Shiva) liked it so much. All I learned from this book, as you can see, was three meager paragraphs worth of interesting facts. Instead of this 2020 book, read Joel Bakan’s earlier book The Corporation which I happily gave five stars.
June 6, 2020
I received an electronic galley copy of "The New Corporation" in exchange for a fair review. I would give this between 4 and 5 stars. In this book Joel Bakan quite effectively debunks the myth of corporate social responsibility and the increasing number of companies who believe their purpose should be more than just increasing shareholder value and that these supposedly more "enlightened" companies will materially reduce inequality, mitigate environmental desecration or will more effectively solve vexing societal problems than a robust, empowered public sector. In other words, "corporations may pursue social and environmental good, they do so only in kinds and amounts likely to help them do well..."
Fundamentally, businesses have a different purpose than representative government and he offers several examples of how supposedly good corporate citizen actions are not a substitute for effective regulation. He writes, "the law demands corporations do well, while it permits them to do good (but only when that helps them do well)." He gives a brilliant example of the Deepwater Horizon disaster where the CEO would encourage protecting workers ("no coffee cups without lids, no talking on cellphones while driving equipment...") yet ignored costly process measures like the upkeep of wells, drilling rigs and pipelines. ("These personal protective measures aligned well with the BP business model--...however, more costly and disruptive process measures to avoid accidents...-were being dangerously diminished.") He points out the absurdity of carbon offsets--"a ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors while forestalling the radical change which...circumstances require." Another excellent example Bakan highlights is Coca-Cola promoting "water neutrality" so that critical water tables in countries like India are not depleted for a product that has no health benefits while local citizens suffer from current corporate practices. Bakan highlights the "fuzzy math' that allows Coca-Cola to say they have achieved their goal when, in fact, if viewed by anyone outside Coca-Cola, they are actually harming local communities.
What about NGO's? Bakan does not believe NGO's are an acceptable substitute for effective government regulation because of cozy relationships where some of them rely on the largesse of the companies they are monitoring. Plus, there are no legal ramifications to enforce adherence to specific processes or outcomes. It's voluntary. Where is the company who would volunteer to empower their workers by creating a union to work with management in creating a fair wage structure and promote worker safety?
Bakan also highlights how tax avoidance strategies and their incessant lobbying for tax cuts, "helped corporations reap record profits over the last few decades also effectively starved governments of the means to protect citizens in the facet a global pandemic." This is one area where I wish Bakan would have tackled --the race to the bottom of corporate taxation that allows corporations to locate to countries with favorable tax policies while still earning a majority of their profits in the United States. Clearly, taxation can not be punitive so that it put companies in a non-competitive position but the "hand outs" companies are given to locate a business in a particular area depletes the funds needed to improve infrastructure, fire and EMS services, good schools, etc.
Competing against a third world wage structure puts the US at a distinct disadvantage. Also, the tone of the books does a 180 degree turn (from aggressive and skeptical about corporations to starstruck) when Bakan gives examples of individuals who are running for political office with a more enlightened view of what good government can do to improve citizens' lives. I am optimistic about the future and I believe the more individuals that can go into government can have a greater impact than CSR but we are still a long way from a level playing field. What changes need to occur to allow more of these citizens to run and win so a critical mass of elected politicians have real bargaining power to ensure that citizens have a return of investment that is on parity with passive investors?
In conclusion, this is an excellent book that convincingly demolishes the idea that corporations can substitute for effective representative government. Hopefully, it is clear that an entity built on shareholder return can not possibly meet the diverse needs of the general public, many of who don’t have the economic means to invest in publicly traded companies. Who else will represent their interests?
Fundamentally, businesses have a different purpose than representative government and he offers several examples of how supposedly good corporate citizen actions are not a substitute for effective regulation. He writes, "the law demands corporations do well, while it permits them to do good (but only when that helps them do well)." He gives a brilliant example of the Deepwater Horizon disaster where the CEO would encourage protecting workers ("no coffee cups without lids, no talking on cellphones while driving equipment...") yet ignored costly process measures like the upkeep of wells, drilling rigs and pipelines. ("These personal protective measures aligned well with the BP business model--...however, more costly and disruptive process measures to avoid accidents...-were being dangerously diminished.") He points out the absurdity of carbon offsets--"a ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors while forestalling the radical change which...circumstances require." Another excellent example Bakan highlights is Coca-Cola promoting "water neutrality" so that critical water tables in countries like India are not depleted for a product that has no health benefits while local citizens suffer from current corporate practices. Bakan highlights the "fuzzy math' that allows Coca-Cola to say they have achieved their goal when, in fact, if viewed by anyone outside Coca-Cola, they are actually harming local communities.
What about NGO's? Bakan does not believe NGO's are an acceptable substitute for effective government regulation because of cozy relationships where some of them rely on the largesse of the companies they are monitoring. Plus, there are no legal ramifications to enforce adherence to specific processes or outcomes. It's voluntary. Where is the company who would volunteer to empower their workers by creating a union to work with management in creating a fair wage structure and promote worker safety?
Bakan also highlights how tax avoidance strategies and their incessant lobbying for tax cuts, "helped corporations reap record profits over the last few decades also effectively starved governments of the means to protect citizens in the facet a global pandemic." This is one area where I wish Bakan would have tackled --the race to the bottom of corporate taxation that allows corporations to locate to countries with favorable tax policies while still earning a majority of their profits in the United States. Clearly, taxation can not be punitive so that it put companies in a non-competitive position but the "hand outs" companies are given to locate a business in a particular area depletes the funds needed to improve infrastructure, fire and EMS services, good schools, etc.
Competing against a third world wage structure puts the US at a distinct disadvantage. Also, the tone of the books does a 180 degree turn (from aggressive and skeptical about corporations to starstruck) when Bakan gives examples of individuals who are running for political office with a more enlightened view of what good government can do to improve citizens' lives. I am optimistic about the future and I believe the more individuals that can go into government can have a greater impact than CSR but we are still a long way from a level playing field. What changes need to occur to allow more of these citizens to run and win so a critical mass of elected politicians have real bargaining power to ensure that citizens have a return of investment that is on parity with passive investors?
In conclusion, this is an excellent book that convincingly demolishes the idea that corporations can substitute for effective representative government. Hopefully, it is clear that an entity built on shareholder return can not possibly meet the diverse needs of the general public, many of who don’t have the economic means to invest in publicly traded companies. Who else will represent their interests?
June 22, 2021
Corporations have more power over the lives we live than our governments. They have lobbied governments to cut taxes so there is less money for public needs and they have also made sure governments remove or weaken regulations that should protect our air and water and limit pollutants like plastic and harmful additives. They do all this to maximize profit no matter how much damage they are causing to our well-being or the planet.
Governments have retreated and allowed themselves to become starved for the resources they need to run a viable society that works for everyone and we have allowed our democracies to be compromised by big business.
This is not a cheery read by any means but it does end on the positive note that change is possible but it will take work.
Governments have retreated and allowed themselves to become starved for the resources they need to run a viable society that works for everyone and we have allowed our democracies to be compromised by big business.
This is not a cheery read by any means but it does end on the positive note that change is possible but it will take work.
December 8, 2020
I liked Bakan's first book The Corporation and thought this would simply be an updated version of that. It was not. It was however, an interesting look at the next incarnation of the corporation.
Part of the book (the first half) was well-written and very intriguing. The second half of the book however, devolved into anti-Trump, pro "democratic socialism" agenda-driven propaganda. All the credibility Bakan earned in his first book and a half were flushed out with this schizophrenic opinion-driven flipflop between the doom and gloom of business and his Pollyanna take on the need for "more government."
His conclusions are sophomoric and really hurt what is a strong first half to his book.
Part of the book (the first half) was well-written and very intriguing. The second half of the book however, devolved into anti-Trump, pro "democratic socialism" agenda-driven propaganda. All the credibility Bakan earned in his first book and a half were flushed out with this schizophrenic opinion-driven flipflop between the doom and gloom of business and his Pollyanna take on the need for "more government."
His conclusions are sophomoric and really hurt what is a strong first half to his book.
Read
August 23, 2025First off... this wasn't as good as the original The Corporation book. (I don't expect a sequel to be, but I had to preface with that).
However, it did shine an important light on how today's corporations (which are trying to appear a lot different than the 2000s corporations) are only doing 'good' for their bottom line. They're doing 'good' for their own profit, not because they're kindhearted organizations who truly want to look out for society.
I watched the New Corporation documentary a few years ago after it came out in 2020, and I enjoyed it a lot. I think I liked it more than the book, to be honest. (Not that the book was bad, but I think the movie was more well done from what I remember).
Here were my issues with the book
-There was some valuable commentary about what the COVID pandemic exposed (in terms of capitalism/workers/the economy/etc.), but there was a lot of ignorance as well. If you want to highlight corporations seeming to 'do good' for society, take ONE look at Pfizer, pharma companies, and the medical industrial complex (which were conveniently left out of this book)!
-Again, about COVID, the author wrote (seemingly from) the beginning of the pandemic, without really knowing what was going to happen later. He acted as if collective corporate profit took a huge hit when in reality, the richest got a lot richer from the pandemic and certain corporations benefitted immensely. More like it--the small businesses took the biggest hit; the big corporations sometimes raked in even more. This is a really important distinction, because when he's talking about 'new corporations', he's not talking about mom and pop businesses; he's talking about the big guys. Post-covid, it seems like there's even more inequality now than there was pre-pandemic in many ways.
-There were points the book was just boring and hard to get through. I wasn't particularly interested in how long the Davos chapter at the beginning went on.
-Afterword was a bit of a slog
Didn't like
48: "Most emerging infectious diseases, including the current coronavirus, as well as AIDS, Ebola, West Nile, SARS, MERS and many more are zoonotic, meaning they jump to humans from nonhuman animals."
Yeah, get back to me on that one in 2025. Lab leaks much? This is outdated..
-146
Strengths of this book
1. It did provide some things you can do about the issues described.
2. It did highlight the difference between protesting and truly mobilizing and reclaiming power (i.e. through politics and pushing for certain policies rather than a mass blanket protest)
3. It drew attention to corporations disrupting democracy
4. There were some interesting anecdotes (from the guy who let his life be sponsored by people ('stockholders') who made his decisions for him, to some progressive fighters.
Important pages
31: Corporate law brief history. "In short, the law demands corporations do well, while it permits them to good (but only when that helps them do well."
42: Examples of corporate sustainability programs & concurrent unsustainable pursuits/waste generated. "Corporations pursue it [sustainability] when there's little cost, little risk, and little disruption to their business models, along with substantial benefits to themselves and their shareholders."
61-62: "Beyond freedom and democracy, another rationale for regulation is that corporations are themselves products of regulation. The corporation was not created by any supernatural entity... It's a creation of the state, of laws that conjure it into existence, deem it to be a 'person', define and protect its rights and privileges, shield its owners from legal liability and provide it with a mandate to prioritize its owners best interests. Corporations--corporate capitalism--could not exist without these legal entitlements."
89: "In the early 2000s, they bolstered their cause with a new rationale. Now socially responsible and publicly minded, they said, they no longer needed to be regulated but could regulate themselves. That argument has been highly effective in supporting corporations' campaigns to liberate themselves from government oversight."
108: Mike Merrill, the man who became a 'publicly traded person'
110: "Whether we're building resumes, going to the gym, rating others and being rated by them, collecting 'friends' and 'likes', monetizing homes and cars, volunteering, meditating, learning or whatever, boosting the value of the portfolios that are ourselves has become our main aim. We think of ourselves, as social links, our moral and political lives, mainly in economic terms. Values we once thought beyond financial considerations are now routinely linked to them (e.g. "Childhood Poverty Costs U.S. $1.03 Trillion in a Year, Study Finds"). "All kinds of things we might have considered or treasured for their own sake have changed in their value, been turned into investments," says Brown, as noneconomic ways of being and thinking, those "oriented towards democracy, or toward the soul," are pushed to the edge."
129: "says Giridharadas - 'The same folks, who pushed for government to do less, to not be able to solve social problems, now present themselves as the solution to the problem they engineered.' Reaping profits all the while." &
Starve the beast process: "First, corporations deny governments adequate resources to fund public services by avoiding taxes, pushing for tax cuts, and lobbying against spending. Crises inevitably ensue - failing schools, water systems, cities, prisons and so on. Corporations step in saying they have the solution--privatization--and that they will do a better job than government."
"The lie "good" corporations can take over from governments has helped pave the way for industry's successful push to cut taxes, slash spending and remove regulations. Which, in turn, deprives governments of the revenue they need to run quality public services. The result? Systems delivering public services falter and fail, and corporations swoop in to fill the void, boosting their profits and broadening their control over society."
131: "A government war game-like simulation in 2019, code-named "Crimson Contagion", modeled a pandemic eerily similar to the coronavirus--it originated in China, spread quickly around the world through air travel, and was officially declared a pandemic a month and a half after first being detected. In the simulation, according to a draft report marked 'not to be disclosed', more than 100 million Americans fell ill, nearly 8 million were hospitalized and more than half a million died."
132: Author quoted Peter Daszak regarding "pathogens jumping from animals to humans". Red flag! Don't you know the Eco Health Alliance is bs?
134: "One undeniable result of big business's assault on the social state is spiraling inequality, now magnified by the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. As corporations lined up for bailouts--tens of millions of ordinary citizens fell hard through the cracks, losing jobs, using up meager savings, lacking sick leave and in many cases medical insurance, and getting-if they were lucky-a one time $1200 cheque. "Socialism for the rich, corporate socialism, but the harshest form of capitalism for the poor," says Robert Reich."
151: "'You can get a bunch of people to turn out for a protest,' he says, but when 'there's nothing behind it, no capacity to strategize and no infrastructure', there's no momentum to carry anything forward. People leave the rally or march as quickly as they show up, and 'nothing happens,' says Ganz. 'Mobilizing is not the same thing as organizing.'" Page talks about how right wing / NRA is excellent at organizing.
157 / 158: About Occupy Wall Street
Summary: People saw marches hadn't worked so they thought camping in the streets might be better. "Protest and resistance are never enough. They're super-important. Everyone should feel the right to fight, the importance of being in the streets, resisting. That's essential, but at a certain point, protest has to be transformed into proposition, an alternative form of life, an alternative social world, an alternative way of being together." says Hardt." (157)
& "So much of our lives is about the stories we tell ourselves. Corporations have done a very effective job at defining the limits of possibility and defining basically what we can expect out of life." (157)
"Marshall Ganz insists that mobilizing people, even in very large numbers, does not itself create social change." (158)
& "Occupy failed to achieve the revolutionary change we set out to achieve, but it taught us something very important - that we should not create social movements that just try to get people into the streets. We need to pair protests with gaining sovereignty, with winning elections." (158)
Would I recommend? If you're only going to read one book, read the original The Corporation. However, this book is more directly relevant for the shady manipulative tactics of 2010-2020s corporations... and there were many good stories and points in it. I needed to read the whole book to write a review, but if you find a section boring/outdated and just skip it, I would definitely recommend this book.
However, it did shine an important light on how today's corporations (which are trying to appear a lot different than the 2000s corporations) are only doing 'good' for their bottom line. They're doing 'good' for their own profit, not because they're kindhearted organizations who truly want to look out for society.
I watched the New Corporation documentary a few years ago after it came out in 2020, and I enjoyed it a lot. I think I liked it more than the book, to be honest. (Not that the book was bad, but I think the movie was more well done from what I remember).
Here were my issues with the book
-There was some valuable commentary about what the COVID pandemic exposed (in terms of capitalism/workers/the economy/etc.), but there was a lot of ignorance as well. If you want to highlight corporations seeming to 'do good' for society, take ONE look at Pfizer, pharma companies, and the medical industrial complex (which were conveniently left out of this book)!
-Again, about COVID, the author wrote (seemingly from) the beginning of the pandemic, without really knowing what was going to happen later. He acted as if collective corporate profit took a huge hit when in reality, the richest got a lot richer from the pandemic and certain corporations benefitted immensely. More like it--the small businesses took the biggest hit; the big corporations sometimes raked in even more. This is a really important distinction, because when he's talking about 'new corporations', he's not talking about mom and pop businesses; he's talking about the big guys. Post-covid, it seems like there's even more inequality now than there was pre-pandemic in many ways.
-There were points the book was just boring and hard to get through. I wasn't particularly interested in how long the Davos chapter at the beginning went on.
-Afterword was a bit of a slog
Didn't like
48: "Most emerging infectious diseases, including the current coronavirus, as well as AIDS, Ebola, West Nile, SARS, MERS and many more are zoonotic, meaning they jump to humans from nonhuman animals."
Yeah, get back to me on that one in 2025. Lab leaks much? This is outdated..
-146
Strengths of this book
1. It did provide some things you can do about the issues described.
2. It did highlight the difference between protesting and truly mobilizing and reclaiming power (i.e. through politics and pushing for certain policies rather than a mass blanket protest)
3. It drew attention to corporations disrupting democracy
4. There were some interesting anecdotes (from the guy who let his life be sponsored by people ('stockholders') who made his decisions for him, to some progressive fighters.
Important pages
31: Corporate law brief history. "In short, the law demands corporations do well, while it permits them to good (but only when that helps them do well."
42: Examples of corporate sustainability programs & concurrent unsustainable pursuits/waste generated. "Corporations pursue it [sustainability] when there's little cost, little risk, and little disruption to their business models, along with substantial benefits to themselves and their shareholders."
61-62: "Beyond freedom and democracy, another rationale for regulation is that corporations are themselves products of regulation. The corporation was not created by any supernatural entity... It's a creation of the state, of laws that conjure it into existence, deem it to be a 'person', define and protect its rights and privileges, shield its owners from legal liability and provide it with a mandate to prioritize its owners best interests. Corporations--corporate capitalism--could not exist without these legal entitlements."
89: "In the early 2000s, they bolstered their cause with a new rationale. Now socially responsible and publicly minded, they said, they no longer needed to be regulated but could regulate themselves. That argument has been highly effective in supporting corporations' campaigns to liberate themselves from government oversight."
108: Mike Merrill, the man who became a 'publicly traded person'
110: "Whether we're building resumes, going to the gym, rating others and being rated by them, collecting 'friends' and 'likes', monetizing homes and cars, volunteering, meditating, learning or whatever, boosting the value of the portfolios that are ourselves has become our main aim. We think of ourselves, as social links, our moral and political lives, mainly in economic terms. Values we once thought beyond financial considerations are now routinely linked to them (e.g. "Childhood Poverty Costs U.S. $1.03 Trillion in a Year, Study Finds"). "All kinds of things we might have considered or treasured for their own sake have changed in their value, been turned into investments," says Brown, as noneconomic ways of being and thinking, those "oriented towards democracy, or toward the soul," are pushed to the edge."
129: "says Giridharadas - 'The same folks, who pushed for government to do less, to not be able to solve social problems, now present themselves as the solution to the problem they engineered.' Reaping profits all the while." &
Starve the beast process: "First, corporations deny governments adequate resources to fund public services by avoiding taxes, pushing for tax cuts, and lobbying against spending. Crises inevitably ensue - failing schools, water systems, cities, prisons and so on. Corporations step in saying they have the solution--privatization--and that they will do a better job than government."
"The lie "good" corporations can take over from governments has helped pave the way for industry's successful push to cut taxes, slash spending and remove regulations. Which, in turn, deprives governments of the revenue they need to run quality public services. The result? Systems delivering public services falter and fail, and corporations swoop in to fill the void, boosting their profits and broadening their control over society."
131: "A government war game-like simulation in 2019, code-named "Crimson Contagion", modeled a pandemic eerily similar to the coronavirus--it originated in China, spread quickly around the world through air travel, and was officially declared a pandemic a month and a half after first being detected. In the simulation, according to a draft report marked 'not to be disclosed', more than 100 million Americans fell ill, nearly 8 million were hospitalized and more than half a million died."
132: Author quoted Peter Daszak regarding "pathogens jumping from animals to humans". Red flag! Don't you know the Eco Health Alliance is bs?
134: "One undeniable result of big business's assault on the social state is spiraling inequality, now magnified by the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. As corporations lined up for bailouts--tens of millions of ordinary citizens fell hard through the cracks, losing jobs, using up meager savings, lacking sick leave and in many cases medical insurance, and getting-if they were lucky-a one time $1200 cheque. "Socialism for the rich, corporate socialism, but the harshest form of capitalism for the poor," says Robert Reich."
151: "'You can get a bunch of people to turn out for a protest,' he says, but when 'there's nothing behind it, no capacity to strategize and no infrastructure', there's no momentum to carry anything forward. People leave the rally or march as quickly as they show up, and 'nothing happens,' says Ganz. 'Mobilizing is not the same thing as organizing.'" Page talks about how right wing / NRA is excellent at organizing.
157 / 158: About Occupy Wall Street
Summary: People saw marches hadn't worked so they thought camping in the streets might be better. "Protest and resistance are never enough. They're super-important. Everyone should feel the right to fight, the importance of being in the streets, resisting. That's essential, but at a certain point, protest has to be transformed into proposition, an alternative form of life, an alternative social world, an alternative way of being together." says Hardt." (157)
& "So much of our lives is about the stories we tell ourselves. Corporations have done a very effective job at defining the limits of possibility and defining basically what we can expect out of life." (157)
"Marshall Ganz insists that mobilizing people, even in very large numbers, does not itself create social change." (158)
& "Occupy failed to achieve the revolutionary change we set out to achieve, but it taught us something very important - that we should not create social movements that just try to get people into the streets. We need to pair protests with gaining sovereignty, with winning elections." (158)
Would I recommend? If you're only going to read one book, read the original The Corporation. However, this book is more directly relevant for the shady manipulative tactics of 2010-2020s corporations... and there were many good stories and points in it. I needed to read the whole book to write a review, but if you find a section boring/outdated and just skip it, I would definitely recommend this book.
March 23, 2021
Must-read for everyone, regardless of their political leanings. Bakan lays out a very clear and compelling case for why self-styled “Good-Acting” Corporations are not a replacement for the basic social functions of government, and are in fact fueling much of the inequity of our age.
Corporations exist to increase share-holder value. In fact, they are legally required to put shareholders interests at the top of their priority list. Which is why the model of the private sector sabotaging all government programs in order to supplant them is at direct odds with the very notion of democratic citizenship that works for the benefit of all.
Even if you have libertarian views, you can’t deny that Public libraries, public education, clean water, and interstate highways are just a few of the very important services that should never be handed over to for-profit companies. Yet this is increasingly what corporate lobbyists are asking for on a local level as well as in Washington.
Bakan’s call to action is brief but succinct. As citizens of a democratic society, we cannot only protest in the streets. Activists must also get involved directly with the political system, running for council member positions, community organizers, etc.. with this two-edged sword of protest and direct political involvement, there’s is hope for a more equitable and abundant society - a government FOR the people.
Corporations exist to increase share-holder value. In fact, they are legally required to put shareholders interests at the top of their priority list. Which is why the model of the private sector sabotaging all government programs in order to supplant them is at direct odds with the very notion of democratic citizenship that works for the benefit of all.
Even if you have libertarian views, you can’t deny that Public libraries, public education, clean water, and interstate highways are just a few of the very important services that should never be handed over to for-profit companies. Yet this is increasingly what corporate lobbyists are asking for on a local level as well as in Washington.
Bakan’s call to action is brief but succinct. As citizens of a democratic society, we cannot only protest in the streets. Activists must also get involved directly with the political system, running for council member positions, community organizers, etc.. with this two-edged sword of protest and direct political involvement, there’s is hope for a more equitable and abundant society - a government FOR the people.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 19, 2021
Freshly released, this book is an extremely timely examination of the “feel good” and “new” corporate movement where CEOs and the companies they lead take a stand on social and environmental issues (and health issues like Bill and Melinda Gates), etc. The problem being, these corporations only do this because it aligns with the profit motive; if it doesn’t, they don’t. Worse, they continue to hollow out governments and are quite openly anti-democratic. To the democratic vacuum rush the nationalistic white supremacists.
A brilliant analysis of corporate pyschopathy and how even when they want to do good, it’s really quite bad. The solution: strong democratic and progressive government and a government-backed support for worker, environmental, education, and health rights that have teeth and cannot be whittled away to pad the corporate bottom line. Further, a turn away from the corporatization of everyday life (everyone is a consumer!) or corporate thinking in non-corporate work (what is the ROI for treating this patient?). Read this book, get out, get involved, and get into government. The writing quality is exceptional. Very high recommend.
A brilliant analysis of corporate pyschopathy and how even when they want to do good, it’s really quite bad. The solution: strong democratic and progressive government and a government-backed support for worker, environmental, education, and health rights that have teeth and cannot be whittled away to pad the corporate bottom line. Further, a turn away from the corporatization of everyday life (everyone is a consumer!) or corporate thinking in non-corporate work (what is the ROI for treating this patient?). Read this book, get out, get involved, and get into government. The writing quality is exceptional. Very high recommend.
January 16, 2023
This book by Joel Bakan is an excellent follow-up to "The Corporation," but one that hides a deep flaw. He does not go far enough.
Since he wrote the first book, there has been much pushback from society. People blame corporations for environmental degradation, disease, and other epidemics. With the spread of digital technology, corporations are digging deeper into our lives, even as they profess to be part of the solution.
Joel Bakan's essential premise is the same: corporations are pathological, even if the people who run them are perfectly decent. However, herein lies the flaw. Corporations don't run themselves. They are just legal constructs. People run corporations. Therefore, if corporations espouse greed, it is because the people who run them are greedy. Think about this.
Since he wrote the first book, there has been much pushback from society. People blame corporations for environmental degradation, disease, and other epidemics. With the spread of digital technology, corporations are digging deeper into our lives, even as they profess to be part of the solution.
Joel Bakan's essential premise is the same: corporations are pathological, even if the people who run them are perfectly decent. However, herein lies the flaw. Corporations don't run themselves. They are just legal constructs. People run corporations. Therefore, if corporations espouse greed, it is because the people who run them are greedy. Think about this.
October 5, 2021
"The point is simple: Corporations pursue social and environmental values as they do everything else; in ways that serve their ends. Though loudly proclaiming commitments to such values they always limit their actions to measures that promote, or at least don't threaten, profitable practices and basic business models."
"The process is sometimes described as 'starve the beast', the beast being government. First, corporations deny governments adequate resources to fund public services by avoiding taxes, pushing for tax cuts and lobbying against expending. Crisis inevitably ensue. Failing schools, water systems, cities, prisons ans so on, and corporations step in, saying they have the solution, privatization, and that they will do a better job than the government."
Joel Bakan
"The process is sometimes described as 'starve the beast', the beast being government. First, corporations deny governments adequate resources to fund public services by avoiding taxes, pushing for tax cuts and lobbying against expending. Crisis inevitably ensue. Failing schools, water systems, cities, prisons ans so on, and corporations step in, saying they have the solution, privatization, and that they will do a better job than the government."
Joel Bakan
May 11, 2021
This was slightly terrifying.
Basically we need government to be the check & balance to companies. Because even if companies claim they are out to do good, they always have their own bottom line in mind.
Basically we need government to be the check & balance to companies. Because even if companies claim they are out to do good, they always have their own bottom line in mind.
April 22, 2023
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Quotes and notes:
“There are no limits in the [Paris] accord on continued exploration and drilling or on tar sands exploration (which experts say could alone defeat Paris targets), pipeline construction, or hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). The accord contains no legally binding emission targets, no timeline for emission reductions, no enforcement mechanisms, no concrete regulatory proposals, and no plans to end fossil fuel subsidies.” p44
“The Economist notes ‘a single jarring truth: Demand for oil is rising and te energy industry, in America and globally, is planning multi-trillion-dollar investments to satisfy it.’ Oil and gas companies are boosting producing and creating new fossil fuel megaprojects. By 2025, for example, ExxonMobil expects to have pumped 25 percent more oil and gas than in 2017.” p45
“Nestlé created a direct-sales force of pushcart vendors in poor and remote regions of Brazil. The company says the program helps remedy hunger and malnutrition by making food available to underserved populations. But the bulk of sales from its pushcarts are of high-calorie, low-nutrient products like Kit Kat …” p50
“Corporations are breaking the law ‘on a grander scale than anything we’ve seen,’ says Robert Weissman.” p57
“… 80% of farm subsidies are directed to large-scale farms producing commodity crops for the processed-food industry …” p75
“… 28 liters of water [are needed] to grow beets for the sugar used in half a liter of Coke …” p86
“One undeniable result of big business’s assault on the social state is spiraling inequality, now magnified by the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. As corporations lined up for bailouts—having spent the cash they earned form record profits and tax cuts on stock buybacks to enrich their shareholders—tens of millions of ordinary citizens fell hard through the cracks, losing jobs, using up meager savings, lacking sick leave and in many cases medical insurance, and getting—if they were lucky—a one-time $1,200 check.” p134
“[F]rom 1980 to 2016, the share of national income going to the top 1 percent jumped from 34 percent to 47 percent … Between 1980 and 2016, the ratio of CEO pay to that of the average work in the United States grew ninefold, from 42 to 1 to 361 to 1 (thirty-three major U.S. companies have ratios above 1,000 to 1).” p135
“[C]orporate capitalism … is killing us. It’s killing whole species. Killing the air, water, and earth. Killing compassion and justice. Killing our human values and democracy.” p182
“They pushed for impunity to fuel climate change, pollute the air, clog oceans with plastics, and destroy forests and species …” p182 [my emphasis]
Quotes and notes:
“There are no limits in the [Paris] accord on continued exploration and drilling or on tar sands exploration (which experts say could alone defeat Paris targets), pipeline construction, or hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). The accord contains no legally binding emission targets, no timeline for emission reductions, no enforcement mechanisms, no concrete regulatory proposals, and no plans to end fossil fuel subsidies.” p44
“The Economist notes ‘a single jarring truth: Demand for oil is rising and te energy industry, in America and globally, is planning multi-trillion-dollar investments to satisfy it.’ Oil and gas companies are boosting producing and creating new fossil fuel megaprojects. By 2025, for example, ExxonMobil expects to have pumped 25 percent more oil and gas than in 2017.” p45
“Nestlé created a direct-sales force of pushcart vendors in poor and remote regions of Brazil. The company says the program helps remedy hunger and malnutrition by making food available to underserved populations. But the bulk of sales from its pushcarts are of high-calorie, low-nutrient products like Kit Kat …” p50
“Corporations are breaking the law ‘on a grander scale than anything we’ve seen,’ says Robert Weissman.” p57
“… 80% of farm subsidies are directed to large-scale farms producing commodity crops for the processed-food industry …” p75
“… 28 liters of water [are needed] to grow beets for the sugar used in half a liter of Coke …” p86
“One undeniable result of big business’s assault on the social state is spiraling inequality, now magnified by the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. As corporations lined up for bailouts—having spent the cash they earned form record profits and tax cuts on stock buybacks to enrich their shareholders—tens of millions of ordinary citizens fell hard through the cracks, losing jobs, using up meager savings, lacking sick leave and in many cases medical insurance, and getting—if they were lucky—a one-time $1,200 check.” p134
“[F]rom 1980 to 2016, the share of national income going to the top 1 percent jumped from 34 percent to 47 percent … Between 1980 and 2016, the ratio of CEO pay to that of the average work in the United States grew ninefold, from 42 to 1 to 361 to 1 (thirty-three major U.S. companies have ratios above 1,000 to 1).” p135
“[C]orporate capitalism … is killing us. It’s killing whole species. Killing the air, water, and earth. Killing compassion and justice. Killing our human values and democracy.” p182
“They pushed for impunity to fuel climate change, pollute the air, clog oceans with plastics, and destroy forests and species …” p182 [my emphasis]
February 14, 2021
Don’t agree but still relevant. Good nostalgia from bschool days, it was an essential read during the program at UBC-Sauder. The updated version still has the basic framework as the original , that corporation’s main motto is to maximize profits. However there’s been a new wave of egalitarianism affecting executives who run these companies. While the author gives credit to these corporate leaders for showing greater interest in improving the benefits of ‘stakeholders’, he argues the environment in which these execs operate is still geared toward maximizing profits over so called ESG benefits. ESG is important insofar as it doesn’t affect the profit making. My basic struggle with this work has been that I didn’t understand what the alternative was ten years ago, neither do I do now.
March 28, 2021
A pretty decent read explaining the tactics of modern companies that we are so familiar with today, i.e. phoney corporate social responsibility campaigns being used as cover for illicit actions. Bakan does a good job of providing key examples to back up his points, the entire book is very well-researched and organized. Although I did feel that it read a little bit like a textbook, this could be due to the fact that Bakan is a professor but it did get a little annoying at times. A good book if you think that the private sector can be the primary source for tackling issues like climate change, wealth inequality, and racism (spoiler alert, it's not), or if you're one of those Elon Musk fanboys.
August 29, 2021
The Corporation was eye-opening for me in my 20s, so now in my 30s I was interested in reading what I assumed was an updated version—The New Corporation. The first few chapters were well written, intriguing, and enlightening. However, toward the end of the book, right when I was expecting all the ideas to come to a culmination, the book got a bit confusing. The concepts were not confusing, but the focus switch to grassroots democratic socialism, didn’t seem to fit with either the first book or the first few chapters of this book. It appears Bakan was in a rush to publish and had he waited just a few more months, his view of the pandemic and current political issues may have been more informed. I enjoy Bakan’s work though and would highly recommend this book to just about anyone.
November 19, 2020
A sequel to the book The Corporation, written 17 years earlier, this book takes aim at the idea of corporate social responsibility, questioning the extent to which corporations assert themselves as being part of the solution, when they are really the source of the problem. It discusses how corporations try to put the onus for environmental on the consumer rather than themselves, while also engaging in 'green-washing' exercises that have high visibility and low impact (e.g. cessation of the use of plastic straws).
April 5, 2021
First half continues the "The Corporation" saga with the great insight that corporations actually used the psychopath analogy in their advantage, now charmingly posing as the good guys - exactly a psychopath's trade. But the second half just glides down into a full SJW pamphlet. Might be necessary for the USA, but from a European perspective it's just a ramble. Bakan also posits some dubious assumptions without factual underpinnings in the "we all know that.." style. The road to hell is paved with good intentions...
July 3, 2024
Though the points made throughout are salient and corporations remain a grave concern, the evidence provided throughout this book is largely lacking, relying on anecdotal evidence, biased sources (activists, left wing think tanks), and slippery slope arguments to prove the author’s assertions. There is still useful information to be found here, but do not expect an objective account of the problems at hand.
July 5, 2024
It is difficult to understand the first label of the book: "The New Corporation" AND the second label: "How 'Good' Corporations Are Bad for Democracy."
The book takes us into uses use both of the labels to give a good book. It's a good book makes a way to bring people together to think and go into difficult the parts of our our coluntry.
The book takes us into uses use both of the labels to give a good book. It's a good book makes a way to bring people together to think and go into difficult the parts of our our coluntry.
December 3, 2025
Well written and thought provoking book. Joel is a great writing and his thoughts and points are clear with the appropriate backup (although I think some are extreme and that he doesn’t give enough credit when due). Worth the read for someone interested in corporate greenwashing and how corporate actions are shaping the environmental and social landscape.
July 28, 2023
The mask off of the greatest "good corporations" is great, truly.
The last fifth of the book fumbles and stumbles over "changing the world" with so many fast obsolete and unnedeed quotes that I had to go from 3 to 2.
The last fifth of the book fumbles and stumbles over "changing the world" with so many fast obsolete and unnedeed quotes that I had to go from 3 to 2.
September 24, 2024
YES! Joel Bakan addresses the complaints I wrote about in my reviews of Mark Z. Jacobson's "No miracles needed" and Michael Lewis' "Boomerang." Strong democracies with strong governments that watch out for humans and the planet, not corporations.
December 31, 2022
J'avais aimé les thèses développées dans le 1er livre et le film. Malheureusement ce nouveau livre ne présente pas autant de nouvelles idées.
April 7, 2023
learned some things?
September 14, 2023
I agree with the thesis of the book and I learned some things but I wish there was more 3.5/5
March 13, 2024
some facts do get on my nerves, some I really hope will be dismissed for good.
March 21, 2024
A must read!
June 29, 2021
Everyone should read this. Or if you don't want to read it, see the documentary:
https://thenewcorporation.movie/
https://thenewcorporation.movie/
November 20, 2021
The title tells it all, really. It's The Corporation but new. I enjoyed it more than the original since it is more topical, but this one has the potential to not age as well. The original will surely be topical for as long as corporations continue to exist while this one is only topical for as long as the "new" corporations continue to exist. Still, since we live in a time where these "new" corporations exist, it is worth reading.
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