Guide to the film,
"The Corporation"
Produced in 1972 and 1973 by CBS
News, this film furnishes us with some "inside" views of how a modern
corporation operates. Although presented
for the most part from the point-of-view of the CEO (chief executive officer),
the film also highlights other employees in the firm.
Major themes of the film
include: business welfare
capitalism: corporate image (from inside
and outside the firm) and employee loyalty; and, business-government relations.
Questions to ponder:
Why did Phillips allow CBS to film
and to interview the CEOs and employees?
Note the brief description of
founder Frank Phillips. How are William
Keeler and Bill Martin similar? different? Why have the differences developed?
What brought on the "credibility
gap"?
Do you believe the social services
Phillips furnishes its employees are necessary?
Are the interests of Phillips the
same as those of the United States?
Should they be? Can they be? What does this suggest about business-government
relations in the U.S.?
Why do the corporate officers work
with federal officials?
Why are corporate contributions to
political campaigns regulated?
Why is corporate loyalty necessary?
What does this film suggest about
the evolution of American capitalism?
(Focus on management-labor relations and business-government relations.)
How do you explain William Keeler's
fate at the end of the film? Would you
have acted the way he did?
The Administrative State in the
1960s and 1970s: Societal Regulations
and Deregulation
Introduction: review of the
growth of the administrative state to 1960
Background
Anti-establishment movement
Societal Regulations
Civil rights
Environment
Safety
Business responds
Comparison
Deregulation
Administrative state bogs down
Chicago School
Conclusions
Adversarial relationship
Myth of
laissez-faire
Industrial
policy?
Micro-Macro
mixture
An Outline of the Growth
of the Administrative State of the Federal Government
(the
mechanism of welfare state capitalism)
Micro policy Macro
policy Social policy
1887 ICC
1890
1906 Meat Inspection
Pure Food/Drug
1913 Federal
Reserve
income tax
1914 FTC/Clayton
Acts
WW I planning:
RA; Food
Admin;
Fuel Admin.
(all temporary;
successful)
1920s associationalism
1930s relief acts
banking legisl
NRA
(planning fails)
SEC
FCC
(1934)
ICC
(trucks/1935) Wagner Labor Act
FPC,
CAB (1938) Fair Labor Stds
AAA
(‘33, ‘38)
ICC
(water/1940) taxes;
deficit spending
(after 1939 -- Keynesian)
WW II planning:
(temporary; successful) OPA
WPB,
NWLB (little steel)
Marshall
Plan; GATT Full Employment
IMF;
CEA GI
Bill; housing
1950s administrative state bogs down in detail/adversarial
relationship on domestic scene
national security state emerges
1960s tax
cuts LBJ/Great Society
deficit spending Civil Rights
(military) Equal Employment
HUD
1970s deregulation stagflation Environment
(rlwys; trucks; Safety (OSHA)
telephones; airlines)
1980s deregul continues tax
cuts attempts to roll-
banking, securities deficit
spending back civil rights,
(military) other legisl