The totalitarian corporation?

Kean Birch

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

    Abstract

    Throughout its history as an institution, the corporation has been associated withtyranny of one sort or another, from the early period with the imperialist expeditions of the East India Company - virtual ruler of the Indian subcontinent - to the vestige of monarchical privilege embodied in corporate charters in the early USA. However, despite these characterisations throughout the centuries, there has been a very limited attempt to provide a rigorous and scholarly account of the totalitarian characteristics of the corporation. Although many would not agree with John McMurtry's assessment that the corporate sphere is a form of totalitarianism, in that we constantly encounter and experience powerful corporate representations of the world (e.g. advertising, marketing, branding) that reinforce and naturalise the corporation's very existence and our subservient place in relation to it (e.g. consumers, insecure employees, emasculated citizens), it is a question worth considering.
    LanguageEnglish
    Pages153-161
    Number of pages8
    JournalTotalitarian Movements and Political Religions
    Volume8
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 2007

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    corporation
    totalitarianism
    charter
    privilege
    marketing
    employee
    India
    citizen
    history
    experience

    Keywords

    • corporations
    • totalitarianism
    • corporate influence
    • corporate power

    Cite this

    Birch, Kean. / The totalitarian corporation?. In: Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 2007 ; Vol. 8, No. 1. pp. 153-161.
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    Birch, K 2007, 'The totalitarian corporation?' Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 153-161. https://doi.org/10.1080/14690760601121739

    The totalitarian corporation? / Birch, Kean.

    In: Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, Vol. 8, No. 1, 03.2007, p. 153-161.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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    Birch K. The totalitarian corporation? Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 2007 Mar;8(1):153-161. https://doi.org/10.1080/14690760601121739

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