The Post Corporate World: Life After Capitalism (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: capitalist cancer, deadly tale, mindful market, United States, Adam Smith, Cultural Creatives (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In his bestselling 1995 call to arms, When Corporations Rule the World, David C. Korten first attempted to raise public consciousness about the potentially disastrous consequences of economic globalization and the expansion of corporate power. Now, in his provocative new work, The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, he goes further by defining these dual ills as a collective cancer that will ultimately destroy the larger society upon which they actually depend for survival.

Containment of this cancer, Korten suggests, is a wholly inadequate remedy. Rather, a "curative regime"--consisting of measures aimed at "virtually eliminating the institution of the limited liability for-profit public corporation as we know it"--is necessary to save us from an otherwise inevitable fate. The book opens with Korten's downbeat view of capitalism infecting "democracy, markets and life itself." Its following three sections are much more optimistic, however, as he focuses on ways both individuals and the community can reorganize their institutional and policy choices to "eliminate the economic pathology that plagues us and create truly democratic, market-based, life-centered societies." Only by intentionally building this radical new post-corporate world, he boldly proposes, will a sustainable community be created that truly meets our future needs. --Howard Rothman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

"In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy and the market economy." So begins The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, the latest salvo from David C. Korten (When Corporations Rule the World). In four sections of three or four chapters each, Korten lays out how it happened and what we can do about it, using model communities that have already begun to "treat money as a facilitator, not the purpose, of our economic lives." 25,000 first printing. (Berrett-Koehler and Kumarian, co-publishers, $27.95 300p ISBN 1-57675-051-5; Mar.) Can the Net really foster, as in Bill Gates's phrase, "friction-free capitalism"? How about "robust direct democracy"? In Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Marketing System, Dan Schiller, professor of communications at UC-San Diego, turns a skeptic's eye to the screen. After reviewing how Internet technology differs from previous forms of telecommunication (and how a "Neoliberal" agenda drove its development), Schiller examines its ever-closer ties with commerce and prognostications for educational revolution. His conclusion: "Digital capitalism has strengthened, rather than banished, the ago-old scourges of the market system: inequality and domination." (MIT, $29.95 320p ISBN 0-262-19417-1; Apr.) Oxford professor of politics John Gray has been an acknowledged influence on Margaret Thatcher, and his writings were appropriated by Britain's New Right. It was thus astonishing to U.K. readers that, in False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism, Gray does an about-face and argues against a market untethered to cultural foundations within particular societies. Updated with a chapter on the controversy it sparked on its U.K. release, the American version further stresses the all-too-apparent instability of global markets. (New Press, $25 272p ISBN 1-56584-521-8; Apr.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (September 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1864031603
• ISBN-13: 978-1864031607
• ASIN: 1887208038
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #87,200 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Capitalism Is Cancer, May 30, 2002

By	J.W.K (Nagano, Japan) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Many people have winced at Korton's now ecological turn. They would rather he simply kept to pure economics, facts and theories, and dump the New Age spin he picked up from biologist Mae-Wan Ho. They were hoping that "The Post-Corporate World" would simply be Part II of his last sizzler, "When Corporations Ruled the World." They see the soft-headed ecological metaphor as a meaningless distraction that will only serve the interests of the enemy -- i.e., number-crunching CEOs, who have no time (after all, time is money) for ecological quackery.

In my opinion, "When Corporations Ruled the World" does not need a sequel. It did the job perfectly. Nor will taking a simply factual stand against the global corporate juggernaut fundamentally alter things. This is what Korten is driving at in his book. He believees we need to understand the world on radically different terms. We need to approach reality with a new story and a new bag of metaphors -- because the old ones have not been doing the job. If you simply want a truckload of facts disavowing capitalism's ability to meet human needs (and by that, I mean all humans -- not just 1 percent of the population), read his first book. It will not only alarm you, but it will arm you to the hilt with anti-corporate firepower for the next time you enter a debate on capitalism's merits. If you want a richer analysis of the inherent paradoxes of capitalism, and a more thorough understanding of what is necessary to remedy the current situation, read this book. The books serve two different functions: The last book was by and large descriptive, whereas this book is heavy on prescription.

Despite what our hard-headed, number-crunching economists might tell you, capitalism is indeed a lot like a cancer. "Cancer occurs when genetic damage causes a cell to forget that it is part of a larger body, the healthy function of which is essential to its own survival. The cell begins to seek its own growth without regard to the consequences for the whole, and ultimately destroys the body that feeds it. As I came to learn more about the course of cancer's development within the body, I cam to realize that the reference to capitalism as a cancer is less a metaphor than a clinical diagnosis of a pathology to which market economic are prone in the absence of adequate citizen and governmental oversight."

In her ground-breaking book, "If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth," the now-famous physicist Helen Caldicott wrote, "as a physician I examine the dying planet as do a dying patient. The earth has a natural system of interacting homeostatic mechanisms similar to the human body's. If one system is diseased, like the ozone layer, then other systems develop abnormalities in function-the crops will die, the plankton will be damaged, and the eyes of all creatures on the planet will become diseased and vision impaired.

"We must have the tenacity and courage to examine the various disease processes afflicting our planetary home. But an accurate and meticulous diagnosis is not enough. We never cure patients by announcing that they are suffering from meningococcal meningitis or cancer of the bladder. Unless we are prepared to look further for the cause, or etiology, of the disease process, the patient will not be cured. Once we have elucidated the etiology, we can prescribe appropriate treatments." (Caldicott, 1991)

As you can see, Korton was not the first person to understand our world as a network of interrelated systems that function much like the human body and other ecological systems. But with this book Korton successfully assays the disease of our capitalist system, elucidates its causes (or etiology) and prescribes an appropriate treatment. In the truest sense of the word, Korten is here acting as a Ph.D (read, doctor) of economics, and capitalism -- as well as your mind and its metaphors -- are the patient.

True, the book does have a more "holistic" flavor, as one reviewer put it, but don't let that scare you away. The book has received unanimously high marks form all reveiwers. From consumers to CEOs, everyone profits from reading this book.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very encouraging -Take 2, April 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism (Hardcover)

Less an etched-in-stone, deterministic prophecy than a playful exercise in new metaphors for economic thinking, The Post-Corporate World would take creative thinkers and doers to a new level of coherence in their economic worldview. The book is for people who feel that there is something fundamentally inhuman in the current social "operating system", but who are looking for structural clarity in their thinking, new ways to articulate what they feel is going on, and possible courses for action. It will not satisfy armchair pundits looking for dirt on the deeds of corporations and their political servants, or those who seek a revelation of the exact future form of society (a la Marx).

Korten [MBA & PhD, Stanford Graduate School of Business] was for twenty-five years a development officer for American agencies in the third world, and demonstrates intimate knowledge of the structure, history, and practice of international capitalism--particularly in its nobler intentions. His focus in this book, however, is the worldview of ordinary people which brings them to accept the inevitability of exploitation and distant, unaccountable ownership-- and how that worldview seems to be changing. Korten here should properly be compared not to academic theorists, but to generalist thinkers such as Rousseau and Thoreau who write from an intuitive feeling about life, sharpened by observations about the larger society and a strong knowledge of the history of thought.

KortenÕs central assertion is that people's economic thought has always been based on their feelings and theories about how Nature works. He argues that our acceptance of the current economy rests on everyone's willingness to believe that natural life is fundamentally a dog-eat-dog competition, as implied by thinkers like Thomas Hobbes and the 19th century promoters of "social Darwinism." The scientific assumption that life evolves, through ruthless competition, towards a positive victory for the "more evolved" species also underlies Karl Marx's theory of the "inevitable" dictatorship of the proletariat.

As readers may know, 20th century biologists have considerably revised their hypotheses about life's evolution and interrelation. While the model of "winner-take-all" evolution may be true for two wolves fighting for the leadership of a pack, it does not at all apply to life's larger processes. Biologists now describe how species evolve more or less cooperatively to fill available niches amongst other life forms. ÒWinner-take-allÓ competitions for scarce resources usually lead to imbalance and catastrophe. The planet we love is a place where all the species of an ecosystem, from bacteria on up, have evolved to benefit most from the independence and interdependence of all the others, in a situation of innovation, dynamic balance, and observance of borders.

KortenÕs hope is that biologyÕs recent findings about healthy ecosystems might clarify our visions of a healthy economy and its present corporate Òdisease.Ó How else to describe a predatory pseudo-lifeform which starves natural innovation and resistance (as by monopolizing markets and buying politicians), extracts life materials from its host (such as clean water, expertise, and time) for strictly monetary ends, while externalizing its wastes and costs (the Òdownsized,Ó the permanent underclass, dead land, pollution) to the public?

Korten fills out the book with stories of people who are trying to promote Òlife valuesÓ in the economy, and suggestions for more coherent and coordinated personal action. He traces the history of Òcorporate rightsÓ in America and the legal fiction that corporations are ÒpersonsÓ under the law; and he illustrates a few images of how a post-corporate market economy might work-- just as food for thought, never as a totalizing utopic vision. Some of these ideas can be found elsewhere, but rarely are they presented in such a coherent and open-ended way. Korten has cross-pollinated impressionistic and critical arguments to carry the weight of his experience, broad curiosity, and disinterested good faith.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provocative, insightful, engrossing critique of capitalism., March 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism (Hardcover)

In this provocative book, Korten argues that capitalism is not, as claimed, the engine of wealth creation and champion of democracy and the free market but conversely, it is undermining each of these due to weak public policy and oversight. His analysis probes the problems of society that lie beneath the current strong economy, including poverty, social breakdown, spiritual emptiness, and environmental destruction. He finds corporations are consolidating power on a global level that is eclipsing nations. Korten suggests that the alternative to the current situation is the emergence of a new global system of democratic market economies that are true to the market ideals set forth by Adam Smith. An engrossing book providing important insights and sure to be controversial.