From Publishers Weekly
This well-documented, apocalyptic tome describes the global spread of corporate power as a malignant cancer exercising a market tyranny that is gradually destroying lives, democratic institutions and the ecosystem for the benefit of greedy companies and investors. Korten (Getting to the 21st Century) points out his conservative roots and business credentials?and then proceeds to finger such classic conspiracy-theory scapegoats as the Trilateral Commission and Council on Foreign Relations as the planning agents of the new world economic order he decries. Korten, founder of the People-Centered Development Forum, prescribes a reordering of developmental priorities to restore local control and benefits. Suggested reforms include shifting tax policies to punish greed and reward social responsibility, placing a 100% reserve requirement on demand deposits at banks and closing the World Bank, which he claims encourages indebtedness in nations that can't afford it. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Korten (Getting to the Twenty-First Century, Kumarian Pr., 1990) brings impressive credentials to the task of blaming large international corporations for many of the social and environmental problems confronting people all over the world. Using numerous well-researched examples, Korten argues that not only do today's corporations exploit labor and the environment, but governments (particularly the U.S. government), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, aid and abet this exploitation through policies that favor capitalists over workers and small business. Although Korten speaks from an obviously liberal position, in an era when conservative political voices declare an unswerving faith in the benefits of unfettered free markets, a voice from the opposition offers a welcome balance. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Andrea C. Dragon, Coll. of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate
This is a 'must-read' book-a searing indictment of an unjust international economic order, not by a wild-eyed idealistic left-winger, but by a sober scion of the establishment with impeccable credentials. It left me devastated but also very hopeful. Something can be done to create a more just economic order.


John Cavanagh, Fellow, The Institute for Policy Studies, and coauthor of Global Dreams
If you can read only one book on how to understand and address the enormous challenges of our time, When Corporations Rule the World is it....


Bella Abzug, Co-Chair, Women's Environment & Development Organization
Required reading for women who want to peek behind the curtain of the global economy and figure out how to save ourselves and respond to the global SOS.


From Booklist
Beginning in the 1960s, social, economic, and political observers have expressed concern over the role of multinational corporations. As the global economy has evolved, it is the transnational corporation that provokes apprehension. In The New Realities (1989), Peter Drucker issued the early warning that the advent of the transnational company heralded a structural change in the world economy. Now Korten sounds loud the alarm. He blames the corporate quest for short-term financial gain for creating a "market tyranny that is extending its reach across the planet like a cancer, colonizing ever more of the planet's living spaces, destroying livelihoods, displacing people, rendering democratic institutions impotent, and feeding on life." The solution, he argues, is to "re-create societies that nurture cultural and biological diversity [and get] corporations out of politics . . . creating localized economies." Korten's critique and his solutions are bold and unequivocal. David Rouse


Midwest Book Review
The harmful effects of international corporations are explored in this hard-hitting title, which shows how increasing concentrations of economic, social and political power are being held by a few strong companies. Human and environmental consequences of these concentrations are outlined in this strong title.


David Rivard, President, Steel Reinforcing, Inc.
"Probably the most important economics book to come out since The Wealth of Nations."


Development, Volume 45 Number 2, June 2002
A definitive "must read" for anyone with a commitment to global justice, North-South co-operation and dialogue, and alternative development.


Rob Morrison, “Counterpoise,” Volume 5 Number 3 / 4
Packed with information... serves as an excellent primer for understanding the ‘new world order’ of the global economy.


EDucate! Volume 2, Issue 3
It is absolutely essential to be exposed to Korten's work on corporations and viable alternatives to corporate hegemony.


Book Description
When Corporations Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It documents the devastating human and environmental consequences of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their own narrow ends. It also reveals why and how millions of people are acting to reclaim their political and economic power from these elitist forces and presents a policy agenda for restoring democracy and rooting economic power in people and communities. This new edition is expanded with new information, including a new preface, a new introduction, a new chapter on The Global Democracy Movement, and a new epilogue.


Book Info
Updated and expanded text featuring a penetrating analysis of how global corporations dominate people and their governments, offering practical routes to a possible alternative future in which societies are made more prosperous, more just, and more easily sustainable. Previous edition: c1996. Softcover. DLC: Corporations--Political aspects.


About the Author
David C. Korten is board chair of the Positive Futures Network, publishers of YES! A Journal of Positive Futures, and founder and president of The People-Centered Development Forum. He is a former faculty member of the Harvard Business School and the author of nine previous books including the bestselling When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World.

ANNOTATION

In a well-reasoned, extensively researched analysis, Korten exposes the harmful effects globalization is having on all areas of life--not just economics, but also politics, society, and the environment--and outlines a grassroots strategy for getting corporations out of politics and creating a world responsive to human needs and the natural environment.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A deep gap is growing between the promises of the new global capitalism and the reality of the social breakdown, inequality, insecurity, spiritual emptiness, and environmental destruction left in its wake. What went wrong, and why? In The Post-Corporate World, David C. Korten makes a well-documented case that the new global capitalism is delivering a fatal blow not only to life but to democracy and the market. But rather than simply presenting a doomsday scenario, Korten shows that it isn't too late for change. Drawing on the new biology and a growing understanding of living systems, the book argues that the most promising alternative is a world of healthy market economies that function as extensions of healthy local ecosystems to meet the needs of people and communities.

SYNOPSIS

A noted social critic and the author of When Corporations Rule the World offers a practical, human-centered alternative to global capitalism run amok.

FROM THE CRITICS

Cindy Patuszynski - ForeWord Magazine

Vivid imagery and original ideas make The Post-Corporate World an interesting and thought-provoking perspective of Korten's view of global society.

Andrea Martin

...[W[ith thrilling clarity, discusses practical ways to create a just, sustainable and compassionate society. —Utne Reader

Publishers Weekly

This well-documented, apocalyptic tome describes the global spread of corporate power as a malignant cancer exercising a market tyranny that is gradually destroying lives, democratic institutions and the ecosystem for the benefit of greedy companies and investors. Korten (Getting to the 21st Century) points out his conservative roots and business credentials-and then proceeds to finger such classic conspiracy-theory scapegoats as the Trilateral Commission and Council on Foreign Relations as the planning agents of the new world economic order he decries. Korten, founder of the People-Centered Development Forum, prescribes a reordering of developmental priorities to restore local control and benefits. Suggested reforms include shifting tax policies to punish greed and reward social responsibility, placing a 100% reserve requirement on demand deposits at banks and closing the World Bank, which he claims encourages indebtedness in nations that can't afford it. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy and the market economy." So begins The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, the latest salvo from David C. Korten (When Corporations Rule the World). In four sections of three or four chapters each, Korten lays out how it happened and what we can do about it, using model communities that have already begun to "treat money as a facilitator, not the purpose, of our economic lives."

Library Journal

For 30 years, Korten toiled as a development worker seeking to end the poverty of the world's underdeveloped nations. In that time, he noted a stark difference between capitalism's democratic myth and the reality of social, economic, and environmental deterioration that accompanied such efforts. In this intriguing sequel to When Corporations Rule the World (Berrett-Koehler, 1995), Korten identifies the root causes of these failures as consumerism, market deregulation, free trade, privatization, global consolidation of corporate power, a focus on money as purpose for economic life, and corruption of our democratic institutions. His solutions prescribe excluding corporations from political participation, implementing serious political campaign reform, eliminating corporate welfare, regulating international corporations and finance, making financial speculation unprofitable, reestablishing locally owned and managed economies that rely predominantly on local resources, and focusing on service to life, not money, as the purpose of our economic existence. Korten makes a good case, but his solutions won't necessarily fly in the face of reality. Still, his book should find a receptive audience in both academic and public libraries.--Norman B. Hutcherson, Kern Cty. Lib., Bakersfield, CA Read all 9 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Building on the electrifying, best-selling first edition of When Corporations Rule the World, this new edition expands and updates Korten's laser-like analysis of how global corporations dominate people and their governments, and the miserable conditions that result when the few rule the many.￯﾿ﾽ Korten then shows practical pathways to a realizable future of more just, prosperous, and sustainable societies. This book will agitate your mind, elevate your soul, and engage your civic spirit. — Ralph Nader

This is a 'must read' book -- a searing indictment of an unjust international economic order, not by a wild-eyed idealistic left-winger, but by a sober scion of the establishment with impeccable credentials.￯﾿ﾽ It left me devastated but also very hopeful.￯﾿ﾽ Something can be done to create a more just economic order. — Desmond Tutu