Restoring Public Purpose to the Private Corporation

Abstract

The modern corporation has been shadowed by suspicion since it first emerged in the late nineteenth century. The tendency of corporations to concentrate wealth and power competes with their real accomplishments in creating wealth, continually raising questions as to their legitimacy. These suspicions periodically erupt into crises of confidence, and at such times corporate abuse often gives rise to movements for corporate and economic reform; the Progressive movement against the trusts in the late nineteenth century and the New Deal both come quickly to mind.