One major theme of this course has been the social construction of markets and of economic behavior. This is the idea that markets are institutions embedded within social relationships that create and sustain them, and institutionalized patterns of behavior are often established through struggles between multiple, powerful actors. For example, we have talked about the social construction of the market for corporate control and about the social construction of labor markets (hiring, pay, and promotion).
In this paper, you should explain the rise of shareholder capitalism (aka the shareholder-value revolution). A strong paper should do these things:
• Identify the key players on both sides of the power struggle over shareholder value, and explain what these key players had to gain and what they had to lose.
• Identify the major arguments on both sides of the debate—those in favor of the idea that corporations should focus exclusively on shareholder value and those that support a different position.
• Explain how proponents of shareholder value ultimately won the day, focusing on how they convinced the world that their moral rationale was legitimate, not on the mechanics of how shareholder value was implemented within corporations. An important part of this is to explain how the proponents used their power to change the material interests of key actors so that they aligned with shareholder value.
The goal of this paper is not merely to describe a series of his- torical events but rather to explain an important historical shift— the shareholder-value revolution—using the key sociological concepts we’ve encountered in this course. These might include the four key mechanisms behind social construction we’ve talked about all semester: institutions, networks, power, and cognition. Since the paper is focused on a particular power struggle, you might also find it useful to use some of the more recent concepts we’ve discussed, particularly social closure and status. Unlike in Paper 1, you do not need to define these terms—by now you should know what they mean, and you will be evaluated on your ability to use these concepts, not define them.
Length and Formatting
The paper should be 1900–2300words. (This is about – double- spaced pages.) Be clear and concise; you will not be rewarded for padding your word count with unnecessary words and sentences.
You do not need to include a title page or even a title. Just write your name, Paper , and your TA’s name and section time at the top.
You should double-space your paper. All other default settings should be fine (-point font, -inch margins); we won’t nitpick about these things, since the paper length is defined by word count, not by number of pages. Use a professional-looking, readable font (Garamond, Times New Roman, Palatino, Arial, or similar).
Essays will be graded on a numerical scale. Style counts, so please proofread and edit your essay carefully.
References and Quotations
You do not need to include a “References” or “Bibliography” section for this paper, since you’ll be using readings directly from the syllabus. You may use direct quotations from the readings to support your arguments. You should keep these short (probably no more than a sen-
tence or two in any given quote). For the most part, you should explain things in your own words, but sometimes the reading summarizes something concisely better than you can paraphrase it, and a direct quotation makes more sense. You should put these quotations inside quotation marks, followed by the author’s name, year of publication, and page number in parentheses. For example: “Social institutions create mental maps of the world in individuals” (Dobbin 2004, pg. 31).