Legitimacy and the capitalist corporation: Cross-cutting perspectives on ownership and control

The debate over ownership and control of corporations is one of the most enduring in social science. It is a debate that continues to influence, and is informed by accounting and accountability research as well as labor process theory, and it is a debate that is vital for understanding the relation between accounting and the labor process. This paper offers a roadmap for locating alternative perspectives concerning ownership and control. First, ‘mainstream anti-managerialism’ maintains that corporations remain answerable to their owners. Second, ‘mainstream managerialism’ argues that corporations are one form of organization and that organizations in general are shaped by inter-organizational factors. Third, ‘radical managerialism’ views corporations as self-perpetuating bureaucracies. Finally ‘Marxist anti-managerialism’ views corporations as constrained by the interests of an identifiable capitalist class.