The rise of corporate conservatism has played a crucial role in reshaping American politics. Big business indeed worked successfully from the mid-1970s on to support policies it deemed in its interests: cutting tax rates on profits and investment income, defeating labor law reform, preventing the creation of a consumer protection agency; limiting the growth of government domestic spending, and promoting deregulation of specific industries. This chapter examines the causes of the corporate mobilization, the mechanisms through which it has influenced politics and policy, and the implications of these developments for existing theories of the state.
