Government In Business: Leading Or Lagging?


Book Description

The evergreen debate over government's involvement in business continues in earnest. Participants straddle all stakeholder groups, from the state itself to the private sector to the public at large. Add to that debate increasing globalisation, and now de-globalisation, and the advent of technological advances. Criticism is often levelled at a government that is slow to act or one that belatedly introduces damning regulations. Many governments are already saddled with demands spanning mega infrastructural development to bulging fiscal deficits to evening out growth across the population. The politics of the day are however synonymous with short-termism. The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the bailout burden even more. The author attempts to provide a fair assessment of the potentially complementary roles that the public and private sectors can play in a fast-changing global economy, amidst the shifting expectations of society.Related Link(s)




Business and Government


Book Description

Businesses have developed an increasingly sophisticated appreciation of the policy process, as well as an ability to develop complex strategies to influence it, over the last 30 years. This volume reviews current debates on the role of business in politics and it assesses emerging methodological approaches to its study.




Strong Towns


Book Description

A new way forward for sustainable quality of life in cities of all sizes Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work. New development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle. Read this book to find out how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life. Develop in-depth knowledge of the underlying logic behind the “traditional” search for never-ending urban growth Learn practical solutions for ameliorating financial struggles through low-risk investment and a grassroots focus Gain insights and tools that can stop the vicious cycle of budget shortfalls and unexpected downturns Become a part of the Strong Towns revolution by shifting the focus away from top-down growth toward rebuilding American prosperity Strong Towns acknowledges that there is a problem with the American approach to growth and shows community leaders a new way forward. The Strong Towns response is a revolution in how we assemble the places we live.




Government and Business: American Political Economy in Comparative Perspective


Book Description

Examining the nexus of government and business in some of the world's most prominent industrial nations, the author explores the strategies adopted by business to influence governmental acdtions and analyzes the public policies that bind business to the state.




The Oxford Handbook of Business and Government


Book Description

Business is one of the major power centres in modern society. The state seeks to check and channel that power so as to serve broader public policy objectives. However, if the way in which business is governed is ineffective or over burdensome, it may become more difficult to achieve desired goals such as economic growth or higher levels of employment. In a period of international economic crisis, the study of how business and government relate to each other in different countries isof more central importance than ever.These relationships have been studied from a number of different disciplinary perspectives - business studies, economics, economic history, law, and political science - and all of these are represented in this handbook. The first part of the book provides an introduction to the ways in which five different disciplines have approached the study of business and government. The second section, on the firm and the state, looks at how these entities interact in different settings, emphasising suchphenomena as the global firm and varieties of capitalism. The third section examines how business interacts with government in different parts of the world, including the United States, the EU, China, Japan and South America. The fourth section reviews changing patterns of market governance through aunifying theme of the role of regulation. Business-government relations can play out in divergent ways in different policy and the fifth section examines the contrasts between different key arenas such as competition policy, trade policy, training policy and environmental policy.The volume provides an authoritative overview with chapters by leading authorities on the current state of knowledge of business-government relations, but also points to ways in which this work might be developed in the future, e.g., through a political theory of the firm.




Business, Politics, and the Practice of Government Relations


Book Description

Government is the source of the largest cost of doing business. Corporations and business associations must, therefore, manage the business-government relationship with uncommon skill and vigor. Charles Mack, drawing upon his long, successful experience as a practitioner and teacher, asks other corporate and association executives to rethink their current government relations programs and implement them in new, more cost-effective and technologically proficient ways. A highly readable and practical guide to lobbying in all its forms, Mack's book emphasizes managing, and shows how to apply the various means of government relations to achieve specific, important results. Mack covers all of the tactics and techniques of the field—issues research, strategies, organization and management, direct lobbying, grassroots lobbying, political action, the use of coalitions and trade associations, and public relations. He discusses the use of new computer and communications technologies, benchmarking, lobbying structures and arenas from Washington to the European Union, current management practices (including compensation), the role of interest groups, legislative and electoral politics, and the practice of government relations in other countries. Government relations people will also find a useful discussion of the legislative and political influences that determine how lawmakers vote on issues, how to organize coalitions of diverse groups and get the most of association memberships, the essentials of mobilizing legislative support at the grassroots, and what to do—and not do—when lobbying foreign countries. Mack provides a clear explanation of how government relations works at the federal, state, local, and international levels. Offering practical, day-to-day guidance to experienced and upcoming government relations executives alike, this book will also have important things to say to legislative aides and other public policy administrators. A highly readable and practical guide to lobbying in all its forms, Mack's book emphasizes managing, and how to apply the various means of government relations to achieve specific, important results.




International Business and Government Relations in the 21st Century


Book Description

This book offers an outlook on relations in the 21st century between national governments and multinational companies.




Rebalancing Society


Book Description

Enough of the imbalance that is causing the degradation of our environment, the demise of our democracies, and the denigration of ourselves. Enough of the pendulum politics of left and right and paralysis in the political center. We require an unprecedented form of radical renewal. In this book Henry Mintzberg offers a new understanding of the root of our current crisis and a strategy for restoring the balance so vital to the survival of our progeny and our planet. With the collapse of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, Western pundits declared that capitalism had triumphed. They were wrong—balance triumphed. A healthy society balances a public sector of respected governments, a private sector of responsible businesses, and a plural sector of robust communities. Communism collapsed under the weight of its overbearing public sector. Now the “liberal democracies” are threatened—socially, politically, even economically—by the unchecked excesses of the private sector. Radical renewal will have to begin in the plural sector, which alone has the inclination and the independence to challenge unacceptable practices and develop better ones. Too many governments have been co-opted by the private sector. And corporate social responsibility can't compensate for the corporate social irresponsibility we see around us “They” won't do it. We shall have to do it, each of us and all of us, not as passive “human resources,” but as resourceful human beings. Tom Paine wrote in 1776, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” He was right then. Can we be right again now? Can we afford not to be?




Capitalism at Work


Book Description

Read the Intro Chapter (PDF) View the Ayn Rand Appendix View an interview with author Robert L. Bradley, Jr. at Reason.com Capitalism took the blame for Enron although the company was anything but a free-market enterprise, and company architect was hardly a principled capitalist. On the contrary, Enron was a politically dependent company and, in the end, a grotesque outcome of America's mixed economy. That is the central finding of Robert L. Bradley's "Capitalism at Work": The blame for Enron rests squarely with "political capitalism"--a system in which business firms routinely obtain government intervention to further their own interests at the expense of consumers, taxpayers, and competitors. Although Ken Lay professed allegiance to free markets, he was in fact a consumate politician. Only by manipulating the levers of government was he able to transform Enron from a $3 billion natural gas company to a $100 billion chimera, one that went in a matter of months from seventh place on Fortune's 500 list to bankruptcy. But "Capitalism at Work" goes beyond unmasking Enron's sophisticated foray into political capitalism. Employing the timeless insights of Adam Smith, Samuel Smiles, and Ayn Rand, among others, Bradley shows how fashionable anti-capitalist doctrines set the stage for the ultimate business debacle. Those errant theories, like Enron itself, elevated form over substance, ignored legitimate criticism, and bypassed midcourse correction. Political capitali




The War on Small Business


Book Description

For years, government bureaucrats have been looking for ways to destroy small businesses. With coronavirus, they finally had their chance. In 2020, the American economy suffered the biggest financial collapse in history. But while Main Street suffered like never before, the stock market continued to reach new highs. How could this be?The answer is that government had slapped oppressive restrictions on small businesses while propping up Wall Street and engineering a historic consolidation of power and wealth. This isn’t a new problem. During the last financial crisis, Washington bailed out large banks, saying they were “too big to fail.” When the federal government finally pushed out the CARES Act in 2020, it clearly favored the wealthy and well-connected, showing that small businesses were too small to matter. People across the political spectrum constantly complain about the tyranny of big business, and they’re not wrong. However, too many think government is the solution. In reality, government is the problem. In The War on Small Business, entrepreneur Carol Roth unveils the many abuses of power inflicted on small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Small business owners were thrown in jail for trying to make a living. Individual rights were discarded. Big government did what it does best—intentionally protect the rich and powerful. This is the most underreported story coming out of the pandemic. The government chose winners and losers, who would thrive and who would fight to survive, based on not data or science, but based on clout and connections. This enabled the government, with the aid of the Federal Reserve, to oversee the largest wealth transfer in history from Main Street to Wall Street. The issues started long ago and continue today with a highly tilted playing field that favors those “in the club” to the detriment of the average Americans. This book is about the Davids vs. the Goliaths and the decentralization that can help the small, independent businesses and individuals participate in wealth creation. If Americans don’t wake up and stop it, politicians will continue to produce policies that intensify their war on small business and individuals and all that stands in the way of centralized power and control.