Property, Power and Politics: Why We Need to Rethink the World Power System

by Jean-Philippe Robé

Overview

Globalization is an extraordinary phenomenon affecting virtually everything in our lives. And it is imperative that we understand the operation of economic power in a globalized world if we are to address the most challenging issues our world is facing today, from climate change to world hunger and poverty. This revolutionary work rethinks globalization as a power system feeding from, and in competition with, the state system. Cutting across disciplines of law, politics and economics, it explores how multinational enterprises morphed into world political organisations with global reach and power, but without the corresponding responsibilities. In illuminating how the concentration of property rights within corporations has led to the rejection of democracy as an ineffective system of government and to the rise in inequality, Robé offers a clear pathway to a fairer and more sustainable power system.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529213171
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	10/20/2020
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Jean-Philippe Robé is a member of the Paris and New York Bars. He teaches law at the Sciences Po Law School in Paris and is an equity partner in one of the largest US law firms.

Table of Contents

General Introduction 1

The State System 3

Property and Government 5

Property, Things and Rights 8

Autonomy and Efficiency 11

Property in the Power System and the Perturbing 14

Development of Corporate Law Negative Externalities 20

The Concentration of Property and the Evolution of the Power System 24

Content 27

Part I Property Introduction to Part I 39

Law Matters 42

A Deeply Embedded Legal Institution 44

Property Today 46

The Notion of 'Economic Property Rights' is a Distraction 47

Property and Legal Personality 49

1 The Meaning of Property 53

1.1 Property as a Constitutional Prerogative 56

1.2 The Secondary Importance of Possession 62

1.3 Property as a Value-enhancing Institution 64

1.4 Property and the State 65

1.5 Possession and Agency 67

1.6 A Right to Exclude and its Contractual Consequences 69

1.7 Prices versus Orders 72

1.8 Owners as Lawmakers 75

1.9 A Right as a Matter of Principle, not a 'Bundle of Rights' 78

1.10 A Rejoinder: Oliver Hart's Theory of Ownership 83

1.11 A Similar Concept in Civil Law and Common Law Systems 84

1.12 Property as a Building Block of the Power System 85

2 The Modern Constitutional Mode of Government 87

2.1 The State and the 'Organs of the State' 90

2.2 Private Prerogatives 94

2.3 Property and the Autonomy from the 'Organs of the State' 100

2.4 The Small-scale Despotisms 102

2.5 Power in Times of Peace, Power in Times of War 104

3 Sovereignty and Property 107

3.1 North, Wallis and Weingast's Thesis 110

3.2 The Role of Organized Violence 113

3.3 Property Rights and Sovereignty 118

3.4 International Sovereignty 121

3.5 Internal Sovereignty 126

3.6 Political Organs of the State, Administrative Organs of the State and Law 133

4 From Political Enterprise to the Modern State 137

4.1 Coalitions 138

4.2 The Provision of Services by the State and the Need for Market Exchange 142

4.3 Modern Taxes and Modern State 148

4.4 Practical Issues in Taxation 151

4.5 From Compulsion to Modern Taxation 154

5 The Mixing of Democracy and Despotism 163

5.1 Property and Legal Pluralism 166

5.2 From Official to Unofficial Legal Pluralism 168

5.3 Relays in the Power System 171

5.4 Acceptability 174

5.5 Correcting Unbalances 175

5.6 The Constitutional Revolutions of the Twentieth Century 176

Part II Firms in the World Power System Introduction to Part II 185

A World of Corporations 187

The Corporate Danger 188

From Liberalism to Capitalism 189

6 Firms 195

6.1 The Need to Differentiate Firms from Corporations 195

6.2 The World Wide Web of Contracts 201

6.3 Contracts and Stable Exchange 205

6.4 Firms 207

6.5 The Unincorporated Business 208

6.6 The Firm in the World Wide Web of Contracts 211

6.7 The Firm's Limits 214

6.8 The Importance of Firms 216

6.9 The Incorporation Process 217

6.10 The Consequences of Incorporation 218

6.11 Corporations 220

6.12 Corporate Personality versus Notions it Should Not be Confused with 221

6.13 The Importance of Being a Legal Person 223

6.14 Incorporation and the Multiplication of Property Rights 224

7 The Features of Business Corporations 227

7.1 Legal Personality 229

7.2 Shares as Autonomous Objects of Property 231

7.3 Assets and Liability Partitioning 234

7.4 Locking in Capital 235

7.5 The Elimination of the Haggling over Residual Control Rights 236

7.6 The Concentration of Property and the Nature of Corporate Prerogatives 238

8 The Spreading of the Corporate System and its Consequences 241

8.1 State Affairs 243

8.2 Modern Capitalism 246

8.3 The Interaction Between Firms and States 249

8.4 The Financial Structure of Firms 259

8.5 Firms versus Corporations 268

8.6 Corporate Governance in a Globalized World 282

8.7 The Recent Dynamic of the Power System 285

9 Coping with Firms 293

9.1 Competing Firms and Competing States 297

9.2 From Despotisms to Constitutional Government 301

9.3 The Rise of 'Private' Government in the US and Berle and Means' Real Message 305

9.4 Legal Institutionalism in Europe 310

9.5 Agency Theory and an Improper Mandate to Maximize Short-term Shareholder Value 313

9.6 Rules of Accounting 320

10 Towards a Sustainable World Power System 327

10.1 The Challenge to Address the Global Issues 330

10.2 Re-engineering Multinational Enterprises 332

10.3 Starting with What We Have 334

10.4 True Cost Accounting 336

10.5 Curing the Deficiencies of Accounting 338

10.6 Concluding Remarks 349

Epilogue 353

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"An analysis of the modern world synthesising law, history and politics in a way that no one else has tried before. Practically every page presents some new facts, historical insight or conceptual innovation. Robé is interested in solutions as much as in analysis. This is a real tour de force by one of the most original deep thinkers today." Ronen Palan, City UniversityLondon

“To say that this work is multidisciplinary does not do it justice. It uniquely integrates the dynamics of state sovereignty, corporate globalization, property rights, and public as well as private law, to illuminate the workings of a multidimensional world power system that needs to be understood before it can be democratically governed.” John Ruggie, Harvard Law School

"Offers a Copernican revolution of the property right doctrine at the heart of our contemporary conception of corporate governance ... brilliantly shows why we fail to tame corporate giants and offers a range of original solutions to transform corporate governance practices suited to the grand challenges of the Anthropocene era." Bertrand Valiorgue, Universityé Clermont Auvergne

“This compelling work’s core arguments deeply challenge conventional economics and transform how we understand the global economy and the power of enterprises. It will cause a great deal of trouble, and rightly so.” Philip Scranton, Rutgers University

Editorial Reviews

"Robé’s wide-ranging analysis outlines what he calls the “World Power System,” which in his view has both integrated and transcended the bounds of the traditional nation-state." Journal of Law and Political Economy

From the Publisher