The Promise and Limits of Private Power

The Promise and Limits of Private Power
Author: Richard M. Locke
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2013-04-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1107067677

This book examines and evaluates various private initiatives to enforce fair labor standards within global supply chains. Using unique data (internal audit reports and access to more than 120 supply chain factories and 700 interviews in 14 countries) from several major global brands, including NIKE, HP and the International Labor Organization's Factory Improvement Programme in Vietnam, this book examines both the promise and the limitations of different approaches to actually improve working conditions, wages and working hours for the millions of workers employed in today's global supply chains. Through a careful, empirically grounded analysis of these programs, this book illustrates the mix of private and public regulation needed to address these complex issues in a global economy.

The Promise and Limits of Private Power

The Promise and Limits of Private Power
Author: Richard M. Locke
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2013-04-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107031559

This book examines and evaluates various private initiatives to enforce fair labor standards within global supply chains. Using unique data (internal audit reports, and access to more than 120 supply chain factories and 700 interviews in 14 countries) from several major global brands, including NIKE, HP, and the International Labor Organization's Factory Improvement Programme in Vietnam, this book examines both the promise and the limitations of different approaches to actually improve working conditions, wages, and working hours for the millions of workers employed in today's global supply chains. Through a careful, empirically grounded analysis of these programs, this book illustrates the mix of private and public regulation needed to address these complex issues in a global economy.

Private Power, Public Law

Private Power, Public Law
Author: Susan K. Sell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2003
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780521525398

Analysis of the power of multinational corporations in moulding international law on intellectual property rights.

The 48 Laws of Power

The 48 Laws of Power
Author: Robert Greene
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2023-10-31
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0670881465

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature. In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum. Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.

Beyond Power and Resistance

Beyond Power and Resistance
Author: Peter Bloom
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2016-11-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1783487550

This book challenges the conceptual and practical effectiveness of resistance to achieve social and political change, and considers an alternative framework that goes beyond a desire to resist sovereign power, but offers political movements that expand individual and collective capabilities.

Corporate Law, Codes of Conduct and Workers’ Rights

Corporate Law, Codes of Conduct and Workers’ Rights
Author: Vanisha Sukdeo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2019-06-13
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0429594763

This book critically explores how increased regulation and governance of corporations can be used to help improve the rights of workers amidst an era of union decline. The book posits that soft law techniques such as codes of conduct are more effective in protecting workers than "hard law" i.e. domestic regulation. It starts by analysing the transnational regulation of corporations and codes of conduct, and then puts forward a model code of conduct that can be used by corporations to help increase the protection of workers. Through this model's use of a monitoring scheme, shareholders, activists, and NGOs put pressure on the corporation to reform itself and enact a code which has obligations flowing both ways between the corporation and its employees. The book then looks at the expansions of fiduciary duties and changes to corporate governance, including Benefit Corporations and how they can be used to increase the rights of workers. It then discusses changes to standard union contracts before concluding with an assessment of the best way forward for workers’ rights. By providing a new contribution to the current dialogue on corporate social responsibility and codes of conduct, this book will be a valuable resource for academics working on labour, employment, and business law as well as corporate lawyers.

Takings

Takings
Author: Richard A. Epstein
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2009-07-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0674036557

If legal scholar Richard Epstein is right, then the New Deal is wrong, if not unconstitutional. Epstein reaches this sweeping conclusion after making a detailed analysis of the eminent domain, or takings, clause of the Constitution, which states that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. In contrast to the other guarantees in the Bill of Rights, the eminent domain clause has been interpreted narrowly. It has been invoked to force the government to compensate a citizen when his land is taken to build a post office, but not when its value is diminished by a comprehensive zoning ordinance. Epstein argues that this narrow interpretation is inconsistent with the language of the takings clause and the political theory that animates it. He develops a coherent normative theory that permits us to distinguish between permissible takings for public use and impermissible ones. He then examines a wide range of government regulations and taxes under a single comprehensive theory. He asks four questions: What constitutes a taking of private property? When is that taking justified without compensation under the police power? When is a taking for public use? And when is a taking compensated, in cash or in kind? Zoning, rent control, progressive and special taxes, workers’ compensation, and bankruptcy are only a few of the programs analyzed within this framework. Epstein’s theory casts doubt upon the established view today that the redistribution of wealth is a proper function of government. Throughout the book he uses recent developments in law and economics and the theory of collective choice to find in the eminent domain clause a theory of political obligation that he claims is superior to any of its modern rivals.

Power, Participation, and Private Regulatory Initiatives

Power, Participation, and Private Regulatory Initiatives
Author: Daniel Brinks
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2021-07-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0812299698

From unsafe working conditions in garment manufacturing to the failure to consult indigenous communities with regard to extractive industries that affect them, human rights violations remain a pervasive aspect of the global economy. Advocates have long called upon states, as the primary duty bearers and enforcers of human rights, to hold corporations directly accountable for violations committed throughout the supply chain. More recently, many business and human rights advocates have considered the development and enforcement of private regulatory initiatives (PRIs) to certify that actors along the supply chain conform to certain codes of conduct. Many advocates see these PRIs as holding the potential to create better outcomes—whether for workers, affected communities, or the environment—within a global economy structured by supply chain capitalism. This volume brings together academics and practitioners from a number of regions throughout the world to engage in theoretical analysis, case study exploration, and reflection on a variety of PRIs. Theorizing outward from the work of practitioners and activists on the ground, the book brings essential but often overlooked questions to the scholarly debates on business, human rights, and global governance. Ultimately, the contributions coalesce around one basic claim: that the inequalities and disparities of power and wealth that are a key characteristic of the contemporary global economy can also mark the origins and operation of PRIs, and do so to varying degrees. The collection highlights the need for discussions about labor, environmental, and other human rights accountability to be situated within a broader analysis of the political economy of contemporary supply chain capitalism. It seeks to enrich discussions of PRIs by bringing into the conversation concerns about distributive justice and political economy.

Regulation and Inequality at Work

Regulation and Inequality at Work
Author: Vanisha Sukdeo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2018-07-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0429836627

This book examines how the law has limitations to the extent that it can combat repression, isolation, and inequality. The main point the book explores is that isolation and inequality cannot be solved by driving up wages and having better working conditions. The true divide between management and workers is the inability of management to see the workers as people, and not just numbers. "The Swiss novelist Max Frisch remarked at the time, ‘We imported workers and got men instead.’" This encapsulates the dilemma of management – how to distance one’s self enough from workers to command respect yet not too distant as to be seen as inhumane. How can isolation and inequality within the workplace be overcome? Regulation and Inequality at Work shows how workers can have an increased voice by using tools outside of the typical legal ones. Without state protection, the rights can be viewed as less stringent. Working outside the system allows for greater malleability and flexibility to be able to cater to individual workers in individual workplaces. Workers’ rights are about better working conditions, hourly wages, and benefits, but are also about being treated in a more civilized manner where one’s humanity is recognized. Only through all of these parts working together will a true version of workers’ rights emerge—one where workers are not viewed as mere tools but within and of the system itself. It shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest both to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners in the fields of business and company law, labour law, and employment law.