Critical Events in the Ethics of U.S. Corporation History |
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Authors: | S Douglas Beets |
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Institution: | (1) Caux Round Table, 401 North Robert Str. #150, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | The history of corporations in the United States (U.S.) is much older than the country, as it must be understood in the context
of the history of peoples of Europe who eventually dominated the North American continent in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. These European settlers came, in part, to achieve economic prosperity for themselves and, in many cases, for early
forerunners of the modern corporation. These business organizations had predecessors in Europe millennia earlier as ancient
Romans had developed a functional and successful form of corporation for the purpose of conducting commerce in the Roman Empire.
In the decades that followed the founding of the U.S. in 1776, corporations evolved from rare, small, closely controlled business
organizations with a multitude of restrictions to very large, very powerful modern institutions that enjoy many of the legal
rights of humans. With this evolution came ethical issues, as (1) the ethical distance was altered between corporate decision-makers
and those affected by those decisions, and (2) many of the legal rights of individual humans were extended, through litigation,
to corporations. This article explains the historical development of the U.S. corporation and identifies 20 Critical Events
in the Ethics of Corporation History (CEECH). An understanding of these historical events may facilitate comprehension of
many of the current ethical issues associated with a legal organizational form that profoundly affects business and society. |
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