Read the following excerpt and answer the
question. Write the answer at the bottom of the answer sheet.
Excerpt from The Corporation, pp. 153-154, Joel Bakan
The corporation was originally conceived as
a public institution whose purpose was to serve national interests and advance
the public good. In seventeenth-century England, corporations such as the
Hudson’s Bay Company and the East India Company were chartered by the crown to
run state monopolies in the colonies of England’s empire. During the eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries too, in both England and the United States,
corporations were formed primarily for public purposes, such as building canals
and transporting water. The modern for-profit corporation, programmed solely to
advance the private interest of its owners, differs profoundly from these
earlier versions of the institution. Yet in one crucial respect it remains the
same: it is, as it has always been, a product of public policy, a creation of the state.
The state is the only institution in the
world that can bring a corporation to life. It alone grants corporations their
essential rights, such as legal personhood and limited liability, and it
compels them always to put profits first. It raises police forces and armies
and builds courthouses and prisons (all compulsorily paid for by citizens) to
enforce corporations’ property rights―rights themselves created by the state. And only the state, in
conjunction with other states, can enter into international trade deals and
create global institutions, such as the World Trade Organization, that, in
turn, limit its ability to regulate the corporations and property rights it has
created.
Without the state, the corporation is
nothing. Literally nothing.
It is therefore a mistake to believe that
because corporations are now strong, the state has become weak. Economic
globalization and deregulations have diminished the state’s capacity to protect
the public interest (through, for example, labor laws, environmental laws, and
consumer protection laws) and have strengthened its power to promote
corporations’ interest and facilitate their profit-seeking missions (through,
for example, corporate laws, property and contract laws, copyright laws, and international
trade laws). Overall, however, the state’s power has not been reduced. It has
been redistributed, more tightly connected to the needs and interest of
corporations and less so to the public interest.
Question: How can public protect the public
interest from big businesses?
Ideas and Expressions
-change the law treating the corporation as
man
-vote for the politicians pushing for the
laws good for the environment and people
-call the politicians receiving donations from big businesses or
those are for laws limiting public interest and promoting interest of
corporations and tell them that you won’t vote for them for the reasons.
-pay attention to business executives becoming government officials
-use the media to let the world know what is going on
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