Benjamin C. Waterhouse
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149165
- eISBN:
- 9781400848171
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149165.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter demonstrates how the Business Roundtable—a consortium of chief executive officers from approximately one hundred and fifty of America's largest publicly and privately held ...
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This chapter demonstrates how the Business Roundtable—a consortium of chief executive officers from approximately one hundred and fifty of America's largest publicly and privately held corporations—holds a unique place in the history of business lobbying. It emerged in direct response to business's crisis of confidence and quickly became a powerful symbol of business leaders' desire to shape politics as well as an expression of their collective power. The first decade of the Roundtable's activism coincided with the dramatic shift of production away from the United States, the permanent decline of both productivity growth and unionization, and the supplanting of manufacturing by financial services as the nation's most important industry. The specific policy threats that drove the leaders of American big business to create the Business Roundtable reflected these shifting dynamics.Less
This chapter demonstrates how the Business Roundtable—a consortium of chief executive officers from approximately one hundred and fifty of America's largest publicly and privately held corporations—holds a unique place in the history of business lobbying. It emerged in direct response to business's crisis of confidence and quickly became a powerful symbol of business leaders' desire to shape politics as well as an expression of their collective power. The first decade of the Roundtable's activism coincided with the dramatic shift of production away from the United States, the permanent decline of both productivity growth and unionization, and the supplanting of manufacturing by financial services as the nation's most important industry. The specific policy threats that drove the leaders of American big business to create the Business Roundtable reflected these shifting dynamics.
Benjamin C. Waterhouse
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149165
- eISBN:
- 9781400848171
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149165.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This book tells the story of the political mobilization of American business in the 1970s and 1980s. The book traces the rise and ultimate fragmentation of a broad-based effort to unify the business ...
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This book tells the story of the political mobilization of American business in the 1970s and 1980s. The book traces the rise and ultimate fragmentation of a broad-based effort to unify the business community and promote a fiscally conservative, antiregulatory, and market-oriented policy agenda to Congress and the country at large. Arguing that business's political involvement was historically distinctive during this period, the chapter illustrates the changing power and goals of America's top corporate leaders. Examining the rise of the Business Roundtable and the revitalization of older business associations such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the book takes readers inside the mind-set of the powerful CEOs who responded to the crises of inflation, recession, and declining industrial productivity by organizing an effective and disciplined lobbying force. By the mid-1970s, that coalition transformed the economic power of the capitalist class into a broad-reaching political movement with real policy consequences. Ironically, the cohesion that characterized organized business failed to survive the ascent of conservative politics during the 1980s, and many of the coalition's top goals on regulatory and fiscal policies remained unfulfilled. The industrial CEOs who fancied themselves the “voice of business” found themselves one voice among many vying for influence in an increasingly turbulent and unsettled economic landscape. Complicating assumptions that wealthy business leaders naturally get their way in Washington, the book shows how economic and political powers interact in the American democratic system.Less
This book tells the story of the political mobilization of American business in the 1970s and 1980s. The book traces the rise and ultimate fragmentation of a broad-based effort to unify the business community and promote a fiscally conservative, antiregulatory, and market-oriented policy agenda to Congress and the country at large. Arguing that business's political involvement was historically distinctive during this period, the chapter illustrates the changing power and goals of America's top corporate leaders. Examining the rise of the Business Roundtable and the revitalization of older business associations such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the book takes readers inside the mind-set of the powerful CEOs who responded to the crises of inflation, recession, and declining industrial productivity by organizing an effective and disciplined lobbying force. By the mid-1970s, that coalition transformed the economic power of the capitalist class into a broad-reaching political movement with real policy consequences. Ironically, the cohesion that characterized organized business failed to survive the ascent of conservative politics during the 1980s, and many of the coalition's top goals on regulatory and fiscal policies remained unfulfilled. The industrial CEOs who fancied themselves the “voice of business” found themselves one voice among many vying for influence in an increasingly turbulent and unsettled economic landscape. Complicating assumptions that wealthy business leaders naturally get their way in Washington, the book shows how economic and political powers interact in the American democratic system.
Brian R. Cheffins
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190640323
- eISBN:
- 9780190640354
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190640323.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Company and Commercial Law
Chapter 3 addresses the 1970s, a decade when managerial capitalism continued to prevail in large American public companies but the scene was being set for its displacement. Confidence in large ...
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Chapter 3 addresses the 1970s, a decade when managerial capitalism continued to prevail in large American public companies but the scene was being set for its displacement. Confidence in large corporations and the executives running them suffered due to American businesses losing ground to foreign challengers, setbacks affecting prominent conglomerates, and revelations of illicit payments by numerous well-known corporations. The difficulties afflicting 1970s public companies helped to set in motion a corporate governance reform process oriented around improving managerial accountability which continues to this day. Regulation of business increased considerably during the opening half of the decade but erosion of faith in government ultimately undermined continued momentum in this direction.Less
Chapter 3 addresses the 1970s, a decade when managerial capitalism continued to prevail in large American public companies but the scene was being set for its displacement. Confidence in large corporations and the executives running them suffered due to American businesses losing ground to foreign challengers, setbacks affecting prominent conglomerates, and revelations of illicit payments by numerous well-known corporations. The difficulties afflicting 1970s public companies helped to set in motion a corporate governance reform process oriented around improving managerial accountability which continues to this day. Regulation of business increased considerably during the opening half of the decade but erosion of faith in government ultimately undermined continued momentum in this direction.
