Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Fusfeld, "The Rise of the Corporate State in America" (1972)

Daniel R. Fusfeld, "The Rise of the Corporate State in America," Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 6, No. 1 (March 1972), pp. 1-22. JSTOR link.

Fusfeld's paper also appears as Chapter 8 in this collection of papers originally published in the Journal of Economic Issues:
The Economy as a System of Power, second edition, edited by Marc R. Tool and Warren J. Samuels, Transaction Publishers, 1989.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com]
(By carefully scrolling through the Preview on the Publisher's page or searching the book on Google Books one can read Fusfeld's article without an institutional JSTOR subscription.)

An earlier version of Fusfeld's paper was: "Fascist Democracy in the United States," Conference Papers, Union for Radical Political Economists, Philadelphia, December 1968; Reprint No. 2, URPE, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

My comments: I cannot recommend this article to others. The title promises far more than this short article can deliver and Fusfeld speaks in generalities, makes sweeping generalizations. I think this important topic of big business-government relations requires a more detailed historical and empirical approach, much like Fusfeld used in his longer essay "The Rise and Repression of Radical Labor in the United States 1877-1918" (my post on that essay is here, which also lists most of Fusfeld's books), an essay which I do recommend and which had motivated me to read the article currently under discussion. Further, in the 40 years since this article was published there has been a significant evolution of the big business-government relationship which deserves our attention. However, I think the lack of detail in Fusfeld's article detracts from its suitability as starting point from which the student can begin to explore and understand the subsequent evolution. I suggest one instead consider the work of Thomas Ferguson.