Are corporations the problem?

Ellerman, David P. (author)

Are corporations the problem? Can reforms in the area of corporate responsibility (e.g., more stakeholder governance) lead to any real changes? The goal of the article is to analyse debates concerning the Citizens United case, corporate personhood, the stakeholder theory, the affected interests principle and, finally, deeper fallacies with respect to the rights of capital embedded in Marxism and conventional economic theories of capital and corporate finance. The last analysis considers another institution at the root of the problems of the current economic system: the renting of human beings in the employment relationship – which has also corrupted the original idea of a corporation that dates back to medieval times.

• Language: English
• Keywords: corporate personhood, employment or human rental relationship, fundamental myth about “ownership of the means of production”, Marxism
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 24.04.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 7-24
• Numbering: Letn. 62, št. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169038
• UDC: 331.103:347.722
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• DOI: 10.51936/tip.62.1.7
• COBISS.SI-ID: 235125763
• Publication date in RUL: 08.05.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa : revija za družbena vprašanja
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: So problem res korporacije?

Abstract

So korporacije res problem? Ali lahko reforme na področju korporativne odgovornosti (npr. več ukvarjanja z deležniki) pripeljejo do resničnih sprememb? Cilj tega prispevka je analizirati razprave v zvezi s primerom Citizens United, obravnavo korporacij kot pravnih oseb, teorijo deleženikov, načelo prizadetih interesov in nazadnje globlje zmote v zvezi s pravicami kapitala, zakoreninjene v marksizmu in konvencionalnih ekonomskih teorijah kapitala in korporativnega financiranja. Zadnja analiza obravnava še eno institucijo, ki leži v temelju težav trenutnega gospodarskega sistema, in sicer najemanje ljudi v okviru delovnega razmerja – kar je prav tako pokvarilo prvotno idejo korporacije, ki sega v čas srednjega veka.

• Keywords: obravnava korporacij kot pravnih oseb, zaposlovanje oz. najemanje ljudi v okviru delovnega razmerja, temeljni mit o “lastništvu proizvodnih sredstev”