The Inner Circle: Large Corporations and the Rise of Business Political Activity in the U.S. and U.K. [Paperback]

Michael Useem (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 1986 | ISBN-10: 0195040333 | ISBN-13: 978-0195040333

Driven by declining profits and government regulation, a new form of class-wide business leadership has emerged: a transcorporate network that is giving a new coherence and power to business in both America and Britain. This book delineates the "inner circle" of top executives who play a leading role in this network, advising the highest levels of government and working to promote a political environment favorable to all business.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The inner circle plays a leading role in advising government at the highest level....A coherent picture of corporate political influence."--Christian Science Monitor.

"A timely, craftsmanlike close-up of American and British corporate command posts...[the] combination of quantitative and qualitative data, competently analyzed and well written, makes this study perhaps the best glimpse yet into the internal workings of the corporate elite....Significantly deepens our knowledge about the structure of power."--Contemporary Sociology.

"Solid, dispassionate, wide-ranging"--Choice.

"The most sophisticated and informative analysis of the way business corporations participate in politics to appear in the last 15 years."--David Vogel, Editor of the California Management Review.

"Comprehensive, challenging and readable."--I.M. Taplin, Wake Forest University

"This is an important work to teach to management/business students. It provides a useful shot of reality about the way large corporations and their 'inner circles' really work."--Victoria Smith, Wharton School

About the Author

Michael Useem is at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 13, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195040333
• ISBN-13: 978-0195040333
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,692,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Useem is the William and Jacalyn Egan Professor of Management and director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School. He holds a PhD from Harvard University, and his research has focused on leadership, decision making, governance, and corporate change. He has presented leadership development programs in India, China, and elsewhere, and with Harbir Singh and Jitendra Singh has offered an annual program on corporate governance in Mumbai.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Businessmen Unite!, July 7, 2005

By 

Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Inner Circle: Large Corporations and the Rise of Business Political Activity in the U.S. and U.K. (Paperback)

In the US and Great-Britain top officers of large corporations formed in the 1970s a semi-autonomous network which Michael Useem calls the 'Inner Circle'. It is a sort of institutionalized capitalism with a classwide alongside a corporate logic and permits a centralized mobilization of corporate resources.

This select group of business leaders assume a leading role in the support of political candidates, in consultations with the highest levels of the national administrations, in public defense of the free enterprise system and in the governance of foundations and universities.

One of its main goals is the promotion of a better political climate for big business through philanthropy (image building via generous support of cultural programs), issue (not product) advertising and political financing.

The reasons behind the constitution of this 'Inner Circle' were the declining power of the individual companies and declining profitability together with, more specifically in GB, the threat of labor socialism (nationalizations and worker participation in corporate governance) and in the US, government intervention.

A main issue was also the desire to control the power of the media, which in the US were considered far too liberal.

The interventions of this 'Inner Circle' were (and are) extremely successful. President R. Reagan and Prime Minister M. Thatcher were partly products of business mobilizations. They lowered taxation, reduced government (except military) spending, lifted controls on business and installed cutbacks on unemployment benefits and welfare.

On the media front, the influence of corporate America is highly enhanced, directly through media mergers, and indirectly through the high corporate advertising budgets.

This is an eminent study based on excellent research.

Highly recommended.