Large corporations clearly dominate modern industrial economies. But since ownership of the stock of these firms is often widely dispersed, it is not so clear who dominates the corporations. This book explores the patterns of ownership, control, and the exercise of power within the corporate economy. The sections summarized here analyze and contrast several possible systems of control, and review the evidence on the ownership of the largest U.S. corporations. Other sections, reviewing comparable data for other countries, find somewhat different patterns of ownership in Japan and in most of Western Europe.
