Over the last 150 years the corporation has risen from relative obscurity to become the world's dominant economic institution. Eminent Canadian law professor and legal theorist Joel Bakan contends that today's corporation is a pathological institution, a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies.

In this revolutionary assessment of the history, character, and globalization of the modern business corporation, Bakan backs his premise with the following observations:

• The corporation's legally defined mandate is to pursue relentlessly and without exception its own economic self-interest, regardless of the harmful consequences it might cause to others.

• The corporation's unbridled self-interest victimizes individuals, society, and, when it goes awry, even shareholders and can cause corporations to self-destruct, as recent Wall Street scandals reveal.

• Governments have freed the corporation, despite its flawed character, from legal constraints through deregulation and granted it ever greater authority over society through privatization.

But Bakan believes change is possible and he outlines a far-reaching program of achievable reforms through legal regulation and democratic control.

Featuring in-depth interviews with such wide-ranging figures as Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, business guru Peter Drucker, and cultural critic Noam Chomsky, "The Corporation" is an extraordinary work that will educate and enlighten students, CEOs, whistle-blowers, power brokers, pawns, pundits, and politicians alike.

New Edition What would the world be like if its ruling elite was insane? The most powerful class of institution on earth, the corporation, is by any reasonable measure hopelessly and unavoidably demented. The corporation lies, steals and kills without remorse and without hesitation when it serves the interests of its shareholders to do so. It obeys the law only when the costs of crime exceed the profits. Corporate social responsibility is impossible except insofar as it is insincere. At once a diagnosis and a course of treatment, The Corporation is essential reading for those who want to understand the nature of the modern business system. It is a sober and careful attempt to describe the world as it is, rather than as corporate public relations departments would have us believe it to be. It reveals a world more exotic and more terrifying than any of us could have imagined. And although a billion dollar industry is trying to convince you otherwise, the corporations that surround us are not our friends. Charming and plausible though they are, they can only ever see us as resources to be used. This is the real world, not science fiction, and it really is us or them. The Corporation, a documentary feature co-produced by the author and based on this book.

A 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.
 
“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.

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. The problem is corporations are still, first and foremost, concerned with their bottom line.

In lucid and engaging prose, Joel Bakan 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, governments neglecting duties to protect the environment, the increasing alienation we experience as every aspect of life is economized, and how the Covid-19 pandemic lays bare 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.

The Canadian Charter of Rights is Composed of Words that describe the foundations of a just society: equality, freedom, and democracy. These words of justice have inspired struggles for civil rights, self-determination, trade unionism, the right to vote, and social welfare. Why is it, then, that fifteen years after the Charter, social injustice, remains pervasive in Canada?

Joel Bakan explains why the Charter has failed to promote social justice, and why it may even impede it. He argues that the Charter's fine-sounding words of justice are just words. The principles of equality, freedom, and democracy are interpreted and implemented by a fundamentally conservative institution -- the legal system -- and within social and economic conditions that systematically frustrate their full realization.

Sophisticated in its analyses but clearly written and accessible to all, Just Words is cutting edge commentary by one of Canada's rising intellectuals.

'(Just Words) is a critical, compelling, and realistic assessment of our constitutional order, and will be essential reading for those interested in the past and future of constitutional theory in Canada' -- Patrick Macklem, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

Thought-provoking political documentary by Canadian filmmakers Jennifer Abbott and Mark Achbar. In the mid-19th century, American corporations began to be legally recognised as individuals, a move that has given them unprecedented rights. In collaboration with novelist Joel Bakan, the filmmakers pose the question: if a corporation was a person, what sort of person would it be? Applying psychiatric principles and social research, they come to the conclusion that this 'person' would be a power-hungry, egocentric and highly destructive psychopath. The film won Best Documentary World Cinema Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

Millennials have come of age in an era when environmental and social crises have defined much of their adult lives, as has the recurrent message that time is of the essence. Future generations will bear the greatest burden created by climate change, pandemics, and inequality, but often they are not in positions of power to make impactful decisions about it. This book gives voice to young lawyers offering new critical perspectives in the burgeoning field of corporate law and sustainability. Climate change is an intergenerational crisis, and the solutions and path forward must include intergenerational voices. Millennials are rising in power at a critical juncture in our climate and corporate history, and their perspectives stand apart from those who have been trained into myopic views of what constitutes change. These essays challenge the status quo across a number of pressing topics, including executive compensation, board diversity, decolonialization, crowdfunding, social media risk, corporate lobbying, shareholder activism, tax avoidance, global supply chain management, and human rights, written with a level of thoughtfulness and urgency that demands attention from policymakers and scholars alike. Edited by Carol Liao, a leading expert in the field, and with a foreword by author and filmmaker of The Corporation and The New Corporation Joel Bakan, this book offers timeless research from a diverse group of young lawyers calling for bona fide corporate accountability within legal and regulatory frameworks, including innovative ideas for reform.