The American Corporation: Anti-Corporate Thought, Party Politics, and Corporate Chartering, 1787-1860

• In Event: 482 - Section on Political Sociology Paper Session. The New Politics of Firms and Industries

Abstract

From the Revolution to the Civil War, a strong current in American culture viewed corporations as un-American. This anti-corporate critique was associated with the liberalism of the Democratic Party. Despite the strength of the Democrats, the corporation flourished during this period. To explain this, I show that anti-corporate politics did not retard corporate proliferation, but rather facilitated it by altering popular understandings of the corporation. Through multivariate analysis of time-series data on state chartering activity and party strength, I show that Democratic Party strength was associated with liberal chartering patterns: corporations were made smaller, more common, more widely available, and less dependent on the legislature. Democratic politicians therefore responded to typically liberal cultural concerns in such a way that lessened Americans' distrust of corporations. Because this political process finished just as the post-war economic takeoff commenced, the Democrats inadvertently laid the cultural and legal groundwork for corporate growth in late-19th American and beyond.

Author

• Carl E. Gershenson, Harvard University