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Growing numbers of thoughtful business executives
are joining social activists in a shared concern that the
emerging global system of business has become a serious
threat to long-term human interests. This controversial
book goes beyond the prevailing conventional wisdom to address
the often neglected issues of modern corporate power. In
a well-reasoned, extensively researched analysis, David
Korten exposes the harmful effects of economic globalization;
sets out the underlying causes of today's social, economic,
environmental, and political crises; and outlines a strategy
for creating localized economies that empower people and
communities within a system of global cooperation.
In When Corporations Rule the World,
Korten shows how the convergence of ideological, political,
and technological forces is leading to an ever-greater concentration
of economic and political power in a handful of corporations
and financial institutions, separating their interests from
the human interest, and leaving the market system blind
to all but its own short term financial gains.
Korten documents the devastating human and
environmental consequences of the successful efforts of
corporations to reconstruct values and institutions everywhere
to serve narrow financial ends. He explains why human survival
depends on a community-based, life-centered alternative
beyond the outmoded strictures of communism and capitalism,
and suggests specific steps to achieve it.
Literate and authoritative, When Corporations
Rule the World is insightful reading for business people,
activists, and ordinary citizens who want to restore the
balance of power in the world.
David C. Korten is founder and president
of The People-Centered Development Forum, a global alliance
dedicated to the creation of just, inclusive, and sustainable
societies through voluntary citizen action. He earned MBA
and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University's Graduate School
of Business, served as a faculty member at the Harvard University
Graduate School of Business, and conducted research at the
Harvard Institute for International Development. He served
as a Ford Foundation project specialist in Manila and as
Asia Regional Advisor on Development Management for the
U.S. Agency for International Development. He has thirty
years of field experience in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
as a writer, teacher, consultant, and academic administrator.
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