Progressive Governance For The Xxi Century

The topic of Progressive Governance which is the focus of this volume is today inconceivable without the global modernization process which has permeated our societies and our daily lives. The 14 reform-minded heads of State and government who discussed Progresssive Governance in Berlin in June 2000 have above all else embraced this modernization process as an opportunity. Governments are under great pressure to provide political responses to the visible and tangible process of globalization. Particularly in the face of ever faster merging economies, the information revolution, unrestricted capital mobility and global culture change, people expect globalization to be managed politically and given democratic form. Many innovative responses to the challenges of globalization, the knowledge society and demography are sketched out in the contributions in this book. The response of progressive governments to globalization is cooperation - a new international social covenant between markets, states and civil society. But, what it is about, in any case, is the best way towards development based on prosperity and justice. The contributions in this book could help to better define this best way.

Progressive Corporate Governance for the 21st Century is a wide ranging and ambitious study of why corporate governance is the shape that it is, and how it can be better. The book sets out the emergence of shareholder primacy orientated corporate governance using a study of historical developments in the United Kingdom and the United States. Talbot sees shareholder primacy as a political choice made by governments, not a ‘natural’ feature of the inevitable market. She describes the periods of progressive corporate governance which governments promoted in the middle of the 20th century using a close examination of the theories of the company which then prevailed. She critically examines the rise of neoliberal theories on the company and corporate governance and argues that they have had a negative and regressive impact on social and economic development. In examining contemporary corporate governance she shows how regulatory styles as informed and described by prevailing regulatory theories, enables neoliberal outcomes. She illustrates how United Kingdom-derived corporate governance codes have informed the corporate governance initiatives of European and global institutions. From this she argues that neoliberalism has re-entered ex command transition economies through those United Kingdom and OECD inspired corporate governance Codes over a decade after the earlier failed and destructive neoliberal prescriptions for transition had been rejected. Throughout, Talbot argues that shareholder primacy has socially regressive outcomes and firmly takes a stand against current initiatives to enhance shareholder voting in such issues as director remuneration. The book concludes with a series of proposals to recalibrate the power between those involved in company activity; shareholders, directors and employees so that the public company can begin to work for the public and not shareholders.

On cover: Future studies.

Comprises papers presented at the conference "Progressive Governance in the 21st Century," which was attended by six world leaders: British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, U.S. President William J. Clinton, Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and also by Romano Prodi, president of the European Union and Juan Somavia, the Director General of the ILO. Discusses the common domestic implications of rapid changes in world economic and social trends, and the efforts of Third Way reformers to modernize the politics and policies of center-left political parties in Europe and the United States.

Chapter 20. How the Progressives Became the Tea Party's Mortal Enemy: Networks, Movements, and the Political Currency of Ideas -- Chapter 21. What Is to Be Done? A New Progressivism for a New Century -- List of Contributors -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z