Public Capitalism

Christopher McMahon is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of Reasonable Disagreement: A Theory of Political Morality, Collective Rationality and Collective Reasoning, and Authority and Democracy: A General Theory of Government and Management.

Introduction Chapter 1. The Public and the Private -The Private Sector -Public and Private Morality -Public Officials -The Moral Status of Corporations Chapter 2. Legitimacy: The Private Model -Employees as Agents -The Normative Duality of Management -Promising and Legitimacy -The Receipt of Pay -Self-interest and Corporate Policy -Conclusion Chapter 3. Legitimacy: The Public Model -The Legitimacy of Political Authority -The Corporate Case -The Integrated Structure -Corporate Democracy -The Nature of Corporate Subordination -Two Kinds of Corporate Decision Making -The Scope of Public Capitalism Conclusion Chapter 4. Morality and the Invisible Hand -Morality, Altruism, and Capitalist Business Practice -The Implicit Morality of the Market -Comparing the Codes: Mutual Aid and Nonmaleficence -Comparing the Codes: Autonomy -Public Morality Chapter 5. Public Management -Cooperating with Government -The Legislative Authority of Management -Mergers and Acquisitions -Multinational Corporations Notes Works Cited Index Acknowledgments

"A frame-changing discussion of the conditions that would legitimize managerial authority in privately owned, publicly held corporations. McMahon opens up new questions in political theory and corporate jurisprudence, and offers fascinating responses." (Philip Pettit, Princeton University) "McMahon has been successful in providing a detailed, robust defense of his conclusion. The book deftly moves between business law, management, economics and, importantly, philosophy in its line of argumentation." (Jeffery Smith, University of Redlands)