Quiet Politics and Business Power

Does democracy control business, or does business control democracy? The book looks at how companies are bought and sold.

The rules governing hostile takeovers have been fiercely contested since the 1990s, but such struggles rarely took place in parliaments. This book studies these political battles in four countries - France, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.Does democracy control business, or does business control democracy? This study of how companies are bought and sold in four countries - France, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands - explores this fundamental question. It does so by examining variation in the rules of corporate control - specifically, whether hostile takeovers are allowed. Takeovers have high political stakes: they result in corporate reorganizations, layoffs and the unraveling of compromises between workers and managers. But the public rarely pays attention to issues of corporate control. As a result, political parties and legislatures are largely absent from this domain. Instead, organized managers get to make the rules, quietly drawing on their superior lobbying capacity and the deference of legislators. These tools, not campaign donations, are the true founts of managerial political influence.