ABSTRACT
Most capitalist societies emerged from feudal relations and, in most countries, rules of dynastic succession moved from agrarian sectors to the ownership and control of large firms. However industrial workers (and, sometimes, managers) proved to be better than serfs at organizing a resistance against dynastic privileges. In most European countries, unions and social democracy were an important factor in the democratization of European societies, which emerged as a reaction to the exclusive powers of the new industrial aristocracy. The United States was a remarkable exception to this path. In the US, the establishment of a strong democracy preceded the growth of big business and the power of the capitalist dynasties was politically and culturally constrained. Whereas a variety of European “aristocratic political origins” tended to move the economy toward a “concentrated equilibrium” with large block holders and strong unions, the American “democratic political origins” set the conditions for “the Berle and Means public company”: 1 managerial power emerged in a “dispersed equilibrium” with fragmented ownership and weak unions.
