In this insightful book, Alexander Styhre examines how corporations, often understood primarily as economic entities or legal devices, seek to influence and shape the market and the wider society in which they operate. Given the scope of such activities in most advanced economies, Styhre argues that corporations are political agents in their own right and that they must be critically analyzed in these terms.

The Corporation and the Constitution is a significant contribution to modern constitutional and corporate scholarship. It offers a coherent theory of applying the Constitution to the corporation, and it forces scholars to appreciate the developments that have taken place totally outside the realm of traditional scholarly discourse on the Constitution.

This volume provides an interesting evaluation of the role of the corporation in American society. The book traces the historical role of the corporation. It discusses the corporation's obligations and influence in the policy-making process of government. Business Library Newsletter The year 1986 marked the 100th anniversary of one of the Supreme Court's most important decisions, in which it unanimously held that a business corporation was a person within the meaning of the Constitution, and thus entitled to constitutional protection. The decision, made almost casually, has had enormous impact on the development of the system of corporate capitalism in the United States. This collection of original essays, written by leading authorities from the fields of economics, law, history and political science, assesses the implications of the Supreme Court ruling from a variety of perspectives. The collected essays provide a thorough evaluation of the role of the corporation, and discusses its obligations, its influence in the policymaking process of government, and its internal structure as a political order.

National Book Award for Nonfiction Finalist National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction Finalist A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year A PBS “Now Read This” Book Club Selection Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Economist and the Boston Globe A landmark exposé and “deeply engaging legal history” of one of the most successful, yet least known, civil rights movements in American history (Washington Post). In a revelatory work praised as “excellent and timely” (New York Times Book Review, front page), Adam Winkler, author of Gunfight, once again makes sense of our fraught constitutional history in this incisive portrait of how American businesses seized political power, won “equal rights,” and transformed the Constitution to serve big business. Uncovering the deep roots of Citizens United, he repositions that controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision as the capstone of a centuries-old battle for corporate personhood. “Tackling a topic that ought to be at the heart of political debate” (Economist), Winkler surveys more than four hundred years of diverse cases—and the contributions of such legendary legal figures as Daniel Webster, Roger Taney, Lewis Powell, and even Thurgood Marshall—to reveal that “the history of corporate rights is replete with ironies” (Wall Street Journal). We the Corporations is an uncompromising work of history to be read for years to come.

Over time, corporations have engaged in an aggressive campaign to dramatically enlarge their political and commercial speech and religious rights through strategic litigation and extensive lobbying. At the same time, many large firms have sought to limit their social responsibilities. For the most part, courts have willingly followed corporations down this path. But interestingly, corporations are meeting resistance from many quarters including from customers, investors, and lawmakers. Corporate Citizen? explores this resistance and offers reforms to support these new understandings of the corporation in contemporary society.

Traces the history of the gradual evolution of two opposing theories concerning corporations active in a legal sovereignty other than that in which their charter was secured.