In the 19th century, the system of business relations was shaped by the new form of the company’s organization. This new form became known as the corporation. The first corporations were created as a result of the partnership between influential business establishments. The economical conditions of that epoch were primary for the formation of the concept of corporation. The fact is that the capitalization of the companies seriously increased due to the industrial revolution. It became possible for the companies to produce more goods and export them or sell at the local market. The economic growth was beneficial for the financial sector. The banks flourished, and the owners of the banks tried to invest money in new projects, such as railroad or agriculture.
The other important positive feature of the corporation is that the managerial form of ruling the company appeared. In the earlier decades, the companies were managed by their owners. After the “corporation revolution” the understanding of the managerial hierarchy appeared (Lehne 68-94). It helped the owners to focus on the development of the basic strategic steps rather than thinking about common working issues. Furthermore, the unemployment rates significantly decreased due to the appearance of the new job places.
However, the reputation of the corporations was later undermined. It happened due to secret policies of the corporation owners. They understood that they are extremely powerful because they accumulated enough resources to influence the legislative decisions of the government. At the same time, many corporations ignored environmental issues, which led to the destruction of the nature in the entire regions. At the same time, the financial crisis of the 1930s has shown that the growth of corporations could be dangerous for the social welfare of the common citizens.
I think that today corporations continue being extremely influential. At the same time, they face a huge amount of lawsuits due to the illegal actions in some regions of the world. Needless to say, that modern corporations, such as Apple or Coca-Cola have a huge influence on the social development of the globalized world. Therefore, it is essential for community and government to control the activities of these legal entities.
The understanding of the positive government is connected with the interpretations of the governmental role in the functioning of economical processes. A close look at the data indicates that the first links to the “positive government” term are traced to the year 1929. It was the period of the Great Depression, which happened after the crash of the national economy. The economists of that epoch, such as John Maynard Keynes, proposed to increase the role government in the macroeconomic policies. The basic idea was to give possibility for the government to intervene the economic processes. Thus, in the 1930s, the U.S. government started to collect the economic information in order to implement this knowledge in monetary and employment policies. With the help of this intervention, the country has overcome the financial crisis.
In the first decade of the 21st century, the government faced the same issues as in the 1929. The liberalization of the mortgage laws and the absence of the governmental control led to the formation of the financial bubble. As a result, the entire world suffered from financial crisis (Macionis 102-112). Therefore, the concept of the positive government was implemented in the second decade of the 21st century. The Constitution and the distribution of power have a huge role on the formation of the positive government because the legislative sphere provides the framework for the governmental activities. In the first decade of the 21st century, the distribution of power was based on the decisions of the Republicans while the modern U.S. policies are conducted by the Democrats. Thus, the distribution of the power has changed on the basis of the principles of the Constitution.