"In a modern large corporation, ownership and power are by no means necessary combined. This matter, as it affects the United States, is authoritatively dealt with in a very important book, The Modern Corporation and Private Property by Berle and Means (1933). They contend that, although ownership is centrifugal, economic power is centripetal; by a very careful and exhaustive investigation they arrive at the conclusion that two thousand individuals control half the industry of the United States (p. 33). They regard the modern executive as analogous to the kings and Popes of former times; in their opinion, more is to be learned as to his motives by studying such men as Alexander the Great than by considering him as the successor of the tradesmen who appear in the pages of Adam Smith. The concentration of power in these vast economic organizations is analogous - so they argue - to that in the Medieval Church or in the National State, and is such as to enable corporations to compete with States on equal terms."
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Russell, Bertrand (1938) Power: A New Social Analysis London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., pp. 131-132
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gardiner_C._Means
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Gardiner C. Means
Gardiner Coit Means (June 8, 1896 – Feb. 15, 1988) was an American economist, government advisor and researcher, who worked at the . At he had met lawyer-diplomat Adolf Berle, and together they wrote the seminal work of corporate governance, The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1932).
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