About
Corporations and American Democracy
The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has provoked passionate debate about the proper role of corporations in American democracy among academics, policymakers, and the public alike. From judicial opinions and dissents to the op-ed pages of newspapers, many have opined on the nature of corporate rights and responsibilities. To date, however, this discourse has remained primarily political, if not polemical. Many participants in this debate have made assertions about the history of the corporation in the United States that are at best outdated and all too often lack scholarly foundation.
This forthcoming volume provides the historical grounding missing from these debates. Fourteen leading historians have come together to tell the complicated story of the corporation's place in American democracy from the Founding Era to the recent past. With both detailed study of seminal moments of change and cross-cutting assessment of general trends, Corporations and American Democracy is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the American polity has wrestled with the possibilities and dangers of the corporate form throughout our nation's history. Through their detailed exploration of the historical record, the authors reveal America's long, surprising, and largely uninterrupted history of attempting to channel corporate power to protect and enhance democracy.
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