Little Republics: From Corpocracy to Democracy

AuthorAllan C. Hutchinson
Pages203-223
203

Little Reubics:
   
e cure for the ills of democra cy is more democracy, not less.
~ Woodrow Wilson
A    almost  years, the basic model for corporate regu-
lation is in need of serious revision. e maladies that aict corpo-
rate governance are no longer capable of being xed by strong doses of
reformist medicine. e time has come to eect an almost complete
rethinking of our fundamental theories about and expectations of cor-
pora tions in mod ern Ca nadi an so ciet y. As i n mid-n inet eenth- centu ry
England, it is now imperative to bring about a massive transformation
in the structure, organization, and outlook of large corporations. Up
to the s, there was the First Age of corporations, in which they
began life as state-sponsored enterprises to support the schemes and
ambitions of edgling nation-states in commerce and colonization.
Between the s and today, there has been the Second Age of corpo-
rations, as privately-controlled agencies for wealth accumulation and
technological innovation. Giving birth to robber barons, corporate
raiders, and dot.com billionaires, private corporations have become
more global and only a little less exploitative in their operations than
the state-directed agencies of old. ere is now the need and, as im-
PART THRE E: MOVING FORWARD
204
portant, the possibility for the emergence of a new paradigm for the
corporation.
e move away from a private conception of corporate life to a more
public vision of corporations is denitely not a misconceived return
to the pre- understanding of corporations as delegated centres of
state power. e new ird A ge of corporation s must be one in wh ich
these vital organizations are treated as vibrant and democracy-en-
hancing vehicles for public and private benet. Within such a newly
emerging sensibility and milieu, the power and prestige of corpora-
tions can be harnessed to the realization of a more democratic society
generally. Indeed, precisely because corporations are so pervasive and
so potent in their impact on most people’s daily lives, they oer a vital
site at which to begin this paradig matic overhaul.
Although we have entered the third millennium, society’s most im-
portant and inuential institution remains decidedly Victorian, if not
occasionally feudal, in its orientation and organization. A small and un-
representative el ite of controlling shareholders, directors, and manage-
ment eect a command-and-control regimen over the lives and fates of
countless people. Yet there are now some encouraging indications that
there is a nascent shi in public opinion and forbearance. Not only are
people beginning to lose patience with corporations but some eorts are
emerging to rein in their power. It is important to seize this moment of
institutional disaection and turn it to greater democratic and trans-
formative eect. Ifthereisacrisis,itisasmuchoneofpoliticalwillasitisIf there is a crisis, it is as much one of political will as it is
of normative decrepitude. As the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci
put it, “the crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the
new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symp-
toms appears.” Indeed, the past few years have witnessed a great variety
of morbid symptoms in regard to corporate governance in Canada . In a. In a
manner of speaking, therefore, my mission is to act as both undertaker
and midw ife. First, it is essentia l to ensure that people appreciate th at the
Second Age of corporations is in a terminal condition and that they com-
bine to give it a decent burial. Second, it is equally important to create a
democratic space for the ird Age that is about to be born and to sug-
gest the contours and characteristics that this new ospring might take.

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