This collective study evaluates the social contribution of the large corporation in American life and its concommitant problems. To whom are corporate managements responsible? From what groups do their managers come and how are they selected? How great is their power? How does the corporation’s severance of ownership from control affect the principle of private property? Is the similarity between corporate organization and governmental-agency structure increasing? This symposium of essays comprehends the views of experts on these and related problems, and concludes with considerations of the role of the corporation in Great Britain and of the significance of various aspects of industrial organization in the Soviet Union.

This book is a collection of fourteen new essays contributed by seven economists, three lawyers, two political scientists, a sociologist, and a former member of Parliament. The central theme is not the corporation as such but the giant publicly owned concern its internal control, and its broader social and economic impact. Some of the authors have ranged widely, and the book is broad in perspective, providing insights by students of several branches of the social sciences… A word must be said about the quality of the writing: Almost without exception, it is excellent for this type of book. The style is crisp, direct, brief, and sometimes brilliant.
-- American Economic Review