The Supreme Court and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism The Political Construction of the Modern Industrial System
Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Social Sciences
First Advisor
Lewis, Eugene
Keywords
Economic Development, Lochner, Antitrust
Area of Concentration
Political Science
Abstract
During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the very core of American economic society was fundamentally transformed. Over the course of a generation, a decentralized market dominated by local proprietary institutions evolved into large corporate monolithic entities extending their influence over a rapidly expanding national market. By the start of the early twentieth century, the structure of American capitalism was starkly different than it had been forty years prior. Academic interpretation of this phenomenon fall within three different categories. Several academics believe that the creation of corporate capitalism is a technical phenomenon, an inevitable outgrowth in the natural evolution of capitalism as the aftermath of industrialization required business to adapt to the changing environment or fall into the annals of history. Several academics examine the creation of corporate capitalism in consideration of class conflict, arguing that the creation of the modern industrial system is best explained by the formation of an elite class consciousness that manipulated government and society into enacting its preferences. Others look to a political explanation, viewing corporate capitalism as the historical winner among several alternatives in a social conflict that centered largely on America's monetary structure. My thesis argues that modem capitalism is a political construction, and focuses on the neglected role of the Supreme Court in creating and maintaining corporate capitalism during this time period. This thesis rejects the common viewpoint of the Gilded Age Supreme Court Justices as mere corporate conspirators and former railroad executives, demonstrating that they ruled against corporations as often as they did the will of government and society. My argument is that the Supreme Court majority during this time period was working with a single vision to establish their specific vision of a utopian capitalist society. The Court's efforts were not in assistance of their former corporate brethren in subjugating the working class elements of society, nor were they in anyway progressive or responding to the changing needs of a society in political turmoil. The majority of the Court during this time period was working with the intent and vision of establishing a society that would be the best of possible conditions for all its members. However, the members of the Court were intellectual dinosaurs, operating under a set of economic beliefs that had become increasingly less salient over the period of rapid industrialization and concentration of American industry during the latter half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Prisoners of an intellectual tradition that was becoming obsolete through the passage of time, they simultaneously battled and created the modem industrial system. In the end, they left American society with a situation that captured negative elements of both worlds. While simultaneously creating and legitimizing the emergence of large-scale corporate capitalism, they also left American society with a debilitated governmental structure that was unable to establish any kind of comprehensive regulation of these institutions. Their attempt to establish a utopian society backfired, and was largely responsible for the shape and direction of modern capitalist development during this critical time period.
Recommended Citation
Askari, Giev Justin, "The Supreme Court and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism The Political Construction of the Modern Industrial System" (2003). Theses & ETDs. 3202.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/3202
Rights
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