Contestants, Profiteers, and the Political Dynamics of Marketization

How Shareholders gained Control Rights in Britain, Germany, and France

Helen Callaghan

Multidisciplinary in appeal; Political Science, Economic History, Sociology, Law and Economics and across the social sciences
Provides a comparison of Britain, Germany, and France
Offers an up-to date introduction to cutting-edge debates across the social sciences

Contestants, Profiteers, and the Political Dynamics of Marketization

How Shareholders gained Control Rights in Britain, Germany, and France

Helen Callaghan

Description

Since the early 1980s, governments worldwide have taken many measures to expand the role of markets. Recent political events reflect widespread disenchantment with neoliberal policies, but it remains doubtful whether populist leaders will deliver the market restraints that many of their voters expect. This book explains the resilience of marketization processes by highlighting the role of profiteers- namely those who, like the organizer of a cock fight, benefit from contests regardless of who wins. By setting up shop on the sidelines, profiteers accumulate resources that boost political efforts to maintain and expand the arena of competition. Evidence comes from the evolution of support for shareholder rights relating to takeover bids among key interest groups and political parties in three countries since the late nineteenth century.

Contestants, Profiteers, and the Political Dynamics of Marketization

How Shareholders gained Control Rights in Britain, Germany, and France

Helen Callaghan

Contents
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
1:Introduction
1.1:The Puzzle: Market Liberalization Across Advanced Capitalist Democracies
1.2:Analytic Focus: Policy Feedback Processes
1.3:The Argument
1.4:Research Operationalization
1.5:Case Selection
1.6:Epistemology, Ontology, and Method
1.7:Outline
2:The Political Dynamics of Marketizing Corporate Control
2.1:The Marketization of Corporate Control as a Regulatory Challenge
2.2:The Marketization of Corporate Control as a Political Process
2.3:Economic Dynamics of the Market for Corporate Control
2.4:Economic Dynamism and Political Salience
2.5:Summary
3:Britain
3.1:The Prewar and Interwar Periods: Barriers to Hostile Bids
Puzzle 1: What prevented market-enabling reforms?
3.2:Turning Point after the Second World War: The Removal of Barriers to Hostile Bids
Puzzle 2: Why did incumbents' defenses crumble?
3.3:Subsequent Evolution of Political Support for Market-Enabling Rules
Puzzle 3: Why did pro-market groups prevail?
3.4:Summary
4.:Germany
4.1: The Prewar, Interwar, and Postwar Periods: Barriers to Hostile Bids
4.2:Turning Point in the 1990s: The Removal of Barriers to Hostile Bids
Puzzle 1: What prevented market-enabling reforms?
Puzzle 2: Why did incumbents' defenses crumble?
4.3: Summary
5: France
5.1:Prewar, Interwar and Postwar Periods: Barriers to Hostile Bids
Puzzle 1: What prevented market-enabling reforms?
5.2: First Turning Point After the Second World War: State Supervision of Incumbents
5.3: Second Turning Point in the late 1960s: Steps Toward Marketization
Puzzle 2: Why did incumbents' defenses crumble?
5.4:Subsequent Evolution of Political Support for Market-Enabling Rules
5.5:Summary
6:Conclusion
6.1:Findings
6.2:Generalizability
6.3:Alternative Explanations
6.4:Value Added to Previous Research in the Same Empirical Domain
6.5:Broader Theoretical Significance
Bibliography

Contestants, Profiteers, and the Political Dynamics of Marketization

How Shareholders gained Control Rights in Britain, Germany, and France

Helen Callaghan

Author Information

Helen Callaghan, Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

Helen Callaghan is a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. She studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at the University of Oxford, obtained her Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University and enjoyed a Max Weber Fellowship at the European University Institute before joining the MPIfG. Her research focuses on the politics of corporate governance in advanced industrialized economies. She has published peer reviewed articles in Comparative Political Studies, Comparative European Politics, Journal of European Public Policy, Review of International Political Economy, Socio-Economic Review, and West European Politics.

Contestants, Profiteers, and the Political Dynamics of Marketization

How Shareholders gained Control Rights in Britain, Germany, and France

Helen Callaghan

Reviews and Awards

"Regulating the markets in which struggles over corporate control take place is deeply political, but in ways that defy political tramlines. Helen Callaghan here carefully and revealingly unpicks the complex alliances and conflicts of interest that have determined changes on this issue. In so doing she also throws important new light on general debates about the nature of markets, varieties of capitalism, and processes of policy change." - Colin Crouch, Professor emeritus, University of Warwick, and External scientific member, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

"Based on her penetrating case studies, Callaghan constructs an elegant argument that processes of marketization, no matter how they proceed in different settings, take on a self-reinforcing momentum that makes them all but unstoppable, no matter how mixed the consequences may be." - J. Nicholas Ziegler, Brown University

"Callaghan provides a hugely informative, interesting and important study of marketization politics and processes. A must read for everyone working in comparative political economynot only on the corporate governance examples here, but more generally on political responses to the economic dislocations of recent decades. Excellent book!" - Peter Gourevitch, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of California, San Diego