Paul Windolf - Böcker

Corporate networks form part of the institutional structure of markets and the business environment, enabling firms to coordinate their behaviour and regulate competition. Networks perform a number of economic functions: they reduce information asymmetries and uncertainty, and facilitate the redistribution of risk between banks, firms, and investors. Within these networks, firms collectively monitor one another and owners supervise their managers.Part One analyses comparative data on interlocking directorates and capital networks between the large corporations in six countries: Germany, Great Britain, France, the United States, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.The structure of corporate networks is shaped by the traditions, culture, and institutions of a country. The German corporate network, for instance, is highly centralized and includes almost all large corporations. The network in the United States, however, is decentralized and falls into a number of regional centres. Corporate networks may be considered as a configuration of firms that are connected to one another by managers (interlocks). Networks may also be considered as a configuration of managers who meet each other on the board of directors (network of the economic elite). The resources on which the dominance of the economic elite is based are bureaucratic power, property rights, and social capital. The top managers not only have a leading position within large corporations (bureaucratic power), they also represent the owner vis-à-vis the dependent firm on whose board they sit. Thus, bureaucratic control over a company is linked with property rights in the context of specific network configurations. These configurations vary between countries and lead to differing forms of managerial control in Germany, France, Britain, and the United States (Part Two of the book).Part Three concentrates on corporate networks and the structure of the market order in the transitional economies. The type of capitalism that is evolving in these countries in some ways resembles Western managerial capitalism, but with certain significant differences. Privatization created a relatively high concentration of ownership. There is no clear-cut separation of ownership and control, but rather a balance of power between managers and owners.

As a central institution that ensures equality of opportunity and social justice, the university is the most important channel of social mobility in modern societies. Over the past century, universities have assumed an important role in the political and cultural emancipation of women, minorities, and the lower socioeconomic classes. This expansion

As a central institution that ensures equality of opportunity and social justice, the university is the most important channel of social mobility in modern societies. Over the past century, universities have assumed an important role in the political and cultural emancipation of women, minorities, and the lower socioeconomic classes. This expansion in educational institutions was not an isolated event in the years after the World War II, but rather a phase in a longer, secular process of modernization which started in the late nineteenth century and continues up to the present day.Expansion and Structural Change explores this development, focusing on the social background of students and the institutional transformation of higher education in several countries. Who have been the beneficiaries of this remarkable process of educational expansion? Has it made Western society more open, mobile, and democratic? These questions are analyzed from a historical perspective which takes into account the institutional change of universities during this century.Based on archival data for the United States, Germany, Japan, France, and Italy, this study combines both comparative and historical perspectives. It documents the political struggle of different social groups for access to univeristies, as well as the meritocratic selection for higher status positions. This work will be an indispensable reference for anyone searching for a comparative and historical analysis of higher education in the most advanced countries.