The New Corporation: How "Good" Corporations Are Bad for Democracy

"A very important book, an arresting study directed to a central issue of the times." —Noam Chomsky

From the author of The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power comes this deeply informed and unflinching look at the way corporations have slyly rebranded themselves as socially conscious entities ready to tackle society's problems, while CEO compensation soars, income inequality is at all-time highs, and democracy sits in a precarious situation.

Over the last decade and a half, business leaders have been calling for a new kind of capitalism. With income inequality soaring, wages stagnating, and a climate crisis escalating, they realized that they had to make social and environmental values the very core of their messaging. There is just one small problem with their new conscientious pitch: corporations are still, first and foremost, concerned with their bottom-line.

In lucid and engaging prose, Joel Bakan lays bare a litany of dangerous corporate actions and documents how increasing corporate freedom encroaches on individual liberty and democracy. Through deep research and interviews with both top executives and their sharpest critics, he exposes the inhumanity and destructive force of the current order—profit-driven privatization subverting the public good, business-pressured governments neglecting duties to protect the environment and citizens' rights, the increasing alienation we experience as every aspect of life is economized, and how the novel Coronavirus pandemic reveals the unjust fault lines of our corporate-led society.

Beyond diagnosing major problems, in The New Corporation Bakan narrates a hopeful path forward. He reveals how citizens around the world are fighting back and making gains in ways that bolster democracy and benefit ordinary citizens rather than the corporate elite.