Study Guide: Corporations

Readings:

An Essay on Work Place Rationalization

An Essay on Globalization

Glossary:

 Essays:

On your next exam you will be asked to demonstrate that you have read and mastered the course material.  You should take the time now to answer the following essay questions to create your study guide for that exam. Address the questions fully and completely in your own words and voice. Prepare your answers now. 

  1. Following Nisbet, how is war related to economic and cultural change?

  2. How has the mix of manufacturing, finance, and services within the American economy changed since the 1950s?

Short Answers:

The following short answer questions are from your readings and may well appear on your next exam. Each can be answered with a short paragraph of three or four sentences; please use your own words and voice. You are encouraged to answer these questions now to create your study guide for that exam.

  1. What are the critical conditions for ideal capitalism to exist?

  2. How does the practice of capitalism differ from the ideal?

  3. Why did Marx believe monopolies to be inevitable in capitalism?

  4. How does competition assume high quality and reasonable prices?

  5. What is an oligopoly? What effect do oligopolies have on the economic system?

  6. How has globalization affected American manufacturing?

  7. How have multinationals changed the corporation's relationship to the state?

  8. What is "downsizing"? What factors have allowed corporations to downsize?

  9. How have computers allowed office managers to stretch their workforce?

  10. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a contingency workforce?

  11. What specific steps have been taken to rationalize the American workforce?

  12. What is the primary goal of a corporation?

  13. Describe ho oligopolies affected American competitiveness in the global economy.

  14. What are corporate profits used for?

  15. What is commodification? Give an example.

  16. What is the human relations school of management? How does this school jibe with the supposed trend for managers to exert greater coordination and control?

Demonstrations, Illustrations, & Examples:

Neil Postman's Introduction to Amusing Ourselves to Death:

 

How a Bill really becomes a Law:

 

Names to Know:

Robert Nisbet

Karl Marx

Max Weber

 Practice Quiz

Bibliography:

Anderson, B. 1991.  Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso. 
Badie, B. and Birnbaum, P. 1983.  The Sociology or the State.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 
Burnham, David.  1980.  The Rise of the Computer State.  New York: Vinatage. 
Domhoff, G. William.  1967.  Who Rules America?  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 
Dye, Thomas R.  1983. Who's Running America?  The Reagan Years. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 
Frobel, F., Heinrichs, J. and Kreye, O.  1991. The New International Division of Labor.  New York: Cambridge University Press. 
Gutmann, Myron P.  1988.  Toward the Modern Economy:  Early Industry in Europe 1500-1800. Philadelphia:  Temple University Press. 
Habermas, J. 1975.  Legitimation Crisis.  Boston: Beacon Press. 
Harrington, Michael.  1976.  The Twilight of Capitalism.  New York: Touchstone. 
Hudson, Pat.  1992.  The Industrial Revolution.  London:  Edward Arnold. 
Kumar, Krishan.  1978. Prophecy and Progress.  New York: Penguin. 
Landis, David S.  1969.  The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present. London: Cambridge University Press. 
Linz, J. and Stepan, A. (eds) 1978. The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 
Lipset, Seymore M.  1960.  Political Man: The Social Basis of Politics. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. 
Mannheim, Karl.  1955.  Ideology and Utopia.  New York: Harvest Books. 
Mayo, E.  1946.  The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 
Michels, Robert. [1915] 1962.  Political Parties.  Translated by Eden Paul and Cedar Paul. New York: The Free Press. 
Mills, C. Wright. 1956. The Power Elite.  New York: Oxford University Press. 
Parenti, Michael.  1978. Power and the Powerless.  New York: St. Martin's. 
Strange, S.  1988.  States and Markets.  London: Printer. 
Tilly, C. (ed). 1974.  The Formation of Nation States in Western Europe. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 
Wallerstein, Immanuel.  1974-88.  The Modern World System.  3 vols. New York: Academic Press.

 

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Continuously updated. ©Frank Elwell