Overview
What are we to make of the power that corporations wield over people in modern society? Is such power legitimate? Many think so. To many businessmen and economists, as well as the general public, firms are purely private and economic entities, justified in using all legal means to maximize profit. In The Form of the Firm, Abraham Singer contends that such a view rests on a theoretical foundation that, while quite subtle, is deeply flawed. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, corporations are not natural outgrowths of the free market. Instead, Singer invites us to see corporations as political institutions that correct market inefficiencies through mechanisms normally associated with government -hierarchy, power, and state-sanctioned authority. Corporations exist primarily to increase economic efficiency, but they do this in ways that distinguish them from the markets in which they operate. Corporations serve economic ends, but through political means. Because of this, Singer argues that they also must be structured and obliged to uphold the social and political values that enable their existence and smooth-running in the first place: individual autonomy, moral and social equality, and democratic norms and institutions.A profound and timely rethinking of what a corporation actually is and how power within it ought to be structured and exercised, The Form of the Firm will reshape our understanding of political theory, corporate governance, corporate law, and business ethics.
Full Product Details
Author: Abraham A. Singer (Visiting Assitant Professor of Ethics, Visiting Assitant Professor of Ethics, Georgetown Business School)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 23.60cm
, Height: 2.80cm
, Length: 15.70cm
Weight: 0.544kg
ISBN: 9780190698348
ISBN 10: 0190698349
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 03 January 2019
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
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Reviews
The large thesis of The Form of the Firm is compelling, the writing is brisk, and the argument is grounded in the key works of several disciplines. The book will make a fine sparring partner and resource for the ongoing task of describing and appraising the business corporation -- Mark Hoipkemier, University of Virginia, Review of Politics [a] virtuoso work ... a powerful, grounded call for reform ... This book requires repeated reading. It is dense and deliberate, but those interested in political philosophy and political economy will find it worthy of the investment ... Essential. -- D. C. Jacobs, CHOICE Across ideological lines, political theory about economic questions is often strangely individualistic, imagining a world with consumers, entrepreneurs, workers, the recipients of income checks from the government, but no meso-level institutions, no corporations. Abraham Singer's The Form of the Firm is an outstanding response to this problem. Working at the border of political theory and normative political economy, Singer does something that is rare, valuable, and impressive: he takes seriously the importance and function of the business corporation in the course of developing a critical normative theory of its functioning. This is a decisively important contribution, a book to reckon with. -Jacob T. Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory and Professor of Political Science, McGill University The Form of the Firm is an important intervention in the growing body of literature on the political theory of the corporation. Singer's critical historical overview of leading theories of firm and corporation, from Smith to the Chicago School, is filled with new insights into motivations, underlying logics, and lacunae. In developing his own 'relational' theory of the firm, Singer emphasizes-against reductionist contractarian approaches-the importance of productivity-enhancing social norms within the firm. Singer then uses the presence of such norms to suggest novel ways of bringing corporations into line with liberal democratic standards, within the constraint of economic viability. The work will become a standard reference in argumentation going forward. -David Ciepley, Associate Professor, University of Denver Singer has provided the most comprehensive framing to date of the relevant questions and theoretical underpinnings for a political theory of the firm. He is, throughout, a reliable and witty guide for both political philosophers unfamiliar with theories of the firm in law and economics, on the one hand, and social scientists and lawyers in need of a primer on the latest developments in political philosophy, on the other. -Wayne Norman, Mike & Ruth Mackowski Professor of Ethics, Duke University
Across ideological lines, political theory about economic questions is often strangely individualistic, imagining a world with consumers, entrepreneurs, workers, the recipients of income checks from the government, but no meso-level institutions, no corporations. Abraham Singer's The Form of the Firm is an outstanding response to this problem. Working at the border of political theory and normative political economy, Singer does something that is rare, valuable, and impressive: he takes seriously the importance and function of the business corporation in the course of developing a critical normative theory of its functioning. This is a decisively important contribution, a book to reckon with. -Jacob T. Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory and Professor of Political Science, McGill University The Form of the Firm is an important intervention in the growing body of literature on the political theory of the corporation. Singer's critical historical overview of leading theories of firm and corporation, from Smith to the Chicago School, is filled with new insights into motivations, underlying logics, and lacunae. In developing his own 'relational' theory of the firm, Singer emphasizes-against reductionist contractarian approaches-the importance of productivity-enhancing social norms within the firm. Singer then uses the presence of such norms to suggest novel ways of bringing corporations into line with liberal democratic standards, within the constraint of economic viability. The work will become a standard reference in argumentation going forward. -David Ciepley, Associate Professor, University of Denver Singer has provided the most comprehensive framing to date of the relevant questions and theoretical underpinnings for a political theory of the firm. He is, throughout, a reliable and witty guide for both political philosophers unfamiliar with theories of the firm in law and economics, on the one hand, and social scientists and lawyers in need of a primer on the latest developments in political philosophy, on the other. -Wayne Norman, Mike & Ruth Mackowski Professor of Ethics, Duke University
The large thesis of The Form of the Firm is compelling, the writing is brisk, and the argument is grounded in the key works of several disciplines. The book will make a fine sparring partner and resource for the ongoing task of describing and appraising the business corporation -- Mark Hoipkemier, University of Virginia, Review of Politics [a] virtuoso work ... a powerful, grounded call for reform ... This book requires repeated reading. It is dense and deliberate, but those interested in political philosophy and political economy will find it worthy of the investment ... Essential. -- D. C. Jacobs, CHOICE Across ideological lines, political theory about economic questions is often strangely individualistic, imagining a world with consumers, entrepreneurs, workers, the recipients of income checks from the government, but no meso-level institutions, no corporations. Abraham Singer's The Form of the Firm is an outstanding response to this problem. Working at the border of political theory and normative political economy, Singer does something that is rare, valuable, and impressive: he takes seriously the importance and function of the business corporation in the course of developing a critical normative theory of its functioning. This is a decisively important contribution, a book to reckon with. -Jacob T. Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory and Professor of Political Science, McGill University The Form of the Firm is an important intervention in the growing body of literature on the political theory of the corporation. Singer's critical historical overview of leading theories of firm and corporation, from Smith to the Chicago School, is filled with new insights into motivations, underlying logics, and lacunae. In developing his own 'relational' theory of the firm, Singer emphasizes-against reductionist contractarian approaches-the importance of productivity-enhancing social norms within the firm. Singer then uses the presence of such norms to suggest novel ways of bringing corporations into line with liberal democratic standards, within the constraint of economic viability. The work will become a standard reference in argumentation going forward. -David Ciepley, Associate Professor, University of Denver Singer has provided the most comprehensive framing to date of the relevant questions and theoretical underpinnings for a political theory of the firm. He is, throughout, a reliable and witty guide for both political philosophers unfamiliar with theories of the firm in law and economics, on the one hand, and social scientists and lawyers in need of a primer on the latest developments in political philosophy, on the other. -Wayne Norman, Mike & Ruth Mackowski Professor of Ethics, Duke University
[a] virtuoso work ... a powerful, grounded call for reform ... This book requires repeated reading. It is dense and deliberate, but those interested in political philosophy and political economy will find it worthy of the investment ... Essential. -- D. C. Jacobs, CHOICE Across ideological lines, political theory about economic questions is often strangely individualistic, imagining a world with consumers, entrepreneurs, workers, the recipients of income checks from the government, but no meso-level institutions, no corporations. Abraham Singer's The Form of the Firm is an outstanding response to this problem. Working at the border of political theory and normative political economy, Singer does something that is rare, valuable, and impressive: he takes seriously the importance and function of the business corporation in the course of developing a critical normative theory of its functioning. This is a decisively important contribution, a book to reckon with. -Jacob T. Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory and Professor of Political Science, McGill University The Form of the Firm is an important intervention in the growing body of literature on the political theory of the corporation. Singer's critical historical overview of leading theories of firm and corporation, from Smith to the Chicago School, is filled with new insights into motivations, underlying logics, and lacunae. In developing his own 'relational' theory of the firm, Singer emphasizes-against reductionist contractarian approaches-the importance of productivity-enhancing social norms within the firm. Singer then uses the presence of such norms to suggest novel ways of bringing corporations into line with liberal democratic standards, within the constraint of economic viability. The work will become a standard reference in argumentation going forward. -David Ciepley, Associate Professor, University of Denver Singer has provided the most comprehensive framing to date of the relevant questions and theoretical underpinnings for a political theory of the firm. He is, throughout, a reliable and witty guide for both political philosophers unfamiliar with theories of the firm in law and economics, on the one hand, and social scientists and lawyers in need of a primer on the latest developments in political philosophy, on the other. -Wayne Norman, Mike & Ruth Mackowski Professor of Ethics, Duke University
Author Information
Abraham A. Singer is currently assistant professor of Management at Loyola University Chicago's Quinlan School of Business. His research and teaching interests lie within and between business ethics and political theory.
