ABSTRACT
The structure of American corporate governance—and its associated, distinctive patterns of executive compensation—is a prime contributor to American winner-take-all inequality. If the politics of electoral spectacle is about winning elections, the politics of organized combat is about transforming what government does. Finding allies in both political parties, organized groups with a long view have successfully pushed new initiatives onto the American political agenda and exploited the opportunities created by American political institutions to transform United States (US) public policy—through new enactments and pervasive policy drift. Research in comparative political economy has long maintained that the organization of relationships between employers and workers is of fundamental significance for a wide range of economic interactions. Union density—the share of the workforce covered by collective bargaining—has fallen precipitously, especially in the private sector. The US has always stood out on measures of union strength as a nation with a weak organized labor movement.
