Complete Historical Prospective on Public Control of Business

Business was an activity focused on the market place. As merchants bought and sold merchandise, wealth accumulated throughout the realm. Parliaments were organized to help the monarch collect taxes. Its members testified to the tax producing capacity of areas which they represented. !his branch of government grew in power. !he Puritan revolution of the mid "#thcentury and the American and $rench revolutions of the late "%th century deposed the king in favor of parliamentary government. It was the culminating act of a new civilization. &here the king had derived his authority from 'od, the authority of parliament rested upon popular elections. !he democratic method of selecting a ruler reflects mechanisms of the marketplace. !he outcome election to a position in government is the result of a contest between competing candidates supported by voters who exercise their individual (udgment. In alike manner, free markets allow individuals to determine prices and )uantities of commercial products by their separate decisions to buy or sell. *oney and votes are the media through which important decisions are made in the third civilization. In the +nited ,tates, the politics of the new democratic republic took the form of a struggle between rich merchants, traders, and bankers on the east coast and farmers and workers who were settling the western territories. President Andrew -ackson.s decision not to re charter the national bank brought this politics into sharp focus. /uring the period of 0-acksonian democracy0, labor unions arose as working people organized around the struggle for a shorter working day. In the"%%1s, labor.s campaign for the % hour day gave rise to the international holiday known as *ay/ay. 2abor unions were organized at the level of the business firm to bargain with employers. Also, a labor friendly political movement appeared in the form of international socialism 3or communism4.,ocialist politics represented an extreme tipping of the political scales against business. 'overnment used its monopoly of force to expropriate private property and put it into collective hands. 'overnment took over the ownership and management of business often without compensating the previous owners. &orse yet, the communists used physical violence against property owners as when ,talin li)uidated the kulaks of 5ussia and the +kraine. In the power struggle between private businesses and government, socialism put the balance of power completely in favor of government. As we know, the socialist regime known as the ,oviet +nion became an ideological rival to nations which had capitalistic economies and a democratic form of government. In the latter nations, some balance was maintained between business and government. !he ,oviet bloc engaged in a costly arms race with the western democracies which eventually led to the downfall of the ,oviet +nion. President 5eagan shrewdly pushed that nation into bankruptcy by its need to respond to his 0,tar &ars0 initiative. 6ommunist society was also showing internal strains, both economic and moral. !he totalitarian government which resulted from destruction of the rival commercial and religious power centers practiced brutal acts against its own people. !oday this form of government is largely discredited. &ith the fall of the ,oviet +nion and other communist governments in the late "7%1s, the +nited ,tates became the world.s only military superpower. 8ur nation came to dominate the world politically, culturally, and

economically. In the power struggle between business and government, the pendulum now swung the other way. !he communist menace was defeated. 8rganized labor also went into political decline. I attribute this decline, in part, to the fact that labor abandoned the struggle to reduce work hours. !hat had been its mission in a time when the unions were built. !hose battles won, union members saw the overtime provision as an opportunity to earn more money than a deterrent to scheduling long hours of work. Also, labor hopped aboard the 6ivil 5ights movement, the women.s movement, and the immigrant rights movement, casting a blind eye on the weakening of the solidarity principle upon which its strength had been based. A defining moment occurred when President 5eagan, himself a former union president, fired the striking air traffic controllers and broke their union. At the same time, business began to s)ueeze government for favors. 6hanges in election law allowed business to form political action committees, undoing a previous rule that corporations could not contribute to political candidates. Business lobbyists, as well as lobbyists from other interest groups, swarmed &ashington and the fifty state capitols seeking an advantage for their clients. Public office was linked with this type of influence peddling (ob in a revolving door. Business influence increased with the increasing amount of money donated to political candidates and the thick presence of lobbyists. 9lected officials were forced to solicit campaign contributions to keep up with the escalating cost of elections. !hey were begging for someone to buy them. And buyers were not hard to find. It used to be that the news media would communicate information about government activities free of charge as part of their news coverage. As (ournalists have inserted themselves as gatekeepers into the news process, political candidates have been forced to communicate with their constituents through paid advertising. !he high cost of television commercials explains why political campaigns have become so expensive and why, conse)uently, moneyed interests have gained such influence over government. !he television broadcasters are using a public resource free of charge. !he private companies which control the broadcasting industry have, in effect, exercised 0s)uatters. rights0 to monopolize certain broadcast fre)uencies. !hey are now making political candidates pay to communicate with the voters in election campaigns. :et, elected officials are afraid to challenge this arrangement for fear of offending the powerful broadcast industry. ;ewspaper reporters increasingly cover political campaigns from the standpoint of how much money is raised or what television commercials have been run, suggesting that only the best financed candidates can win elections and therefore interest their readers. ,o, this corrupt relationship between (ournalism and moneyed interests feeds on itself. Business, which has the most money to spend on advertising, necessarily gains the upper hand in political affairs. 8rganized labor, the main political counterweight to business, has gained an entrenched interesting certain business firms. 8ver the years, union members have gained in wages and benefits to the point that labor costs in unionized firms are out of line with costs elsewhere. *eanwhile, business has steadily invested in labor saving technologies, allowing its operations to be handled by a smaller complement of workers. Proportionately fewer workers are employed in the more highly paid union shops. As a result, the labor movement is no longer seen as a idealistic effort to upgrade the condition of working people generally. Instead, the public increasingly regards

!he Process 9volution< !he three waves of process evolution since its post industrial revolution inception. !he timeline illustrates that the shaping of BP* into its present state is the result of significant business drivers, business tools, organization development methodologies, key technological developments, technology and measurement tools, standards, and related controls. !he latter part of the timeline sees a shift from technology as one of the main process drivers to technology as process enabler. BP* and BP* tools are evolving as a result of the innovation, customization, increased one to one customer focus, and business growth that has been caused by consolidation and => hour global manufacturing and service. !echnology in the form of evolving products, combined with Internet protocols, is beginning to enable the separation of business management from systems management, the separation of process from systems, and the development of the context driven process models that are essential to BP*. Processes can now be identified in context? measured, managed, and aligned to the business @ i.e., integrated with technology? and used, in turn, to drive technology. !his has led to increased interest in the A 9nterprise as an Adaptive ,ystemB concept . $rom this point of view, the enterprise itself provides internal and external visibility, agility, and adaptability, based on process feedback. $rom a standards and control standpoint, the combination of technology protocol standardization, )uality, international standards, benchmarking practices, and ,arbanes 8xley controls has driven re)uirements to model, evaluate, report, and integrate BP*. As far back as "7"", $rederick !aylor focused on manufacturing tasks and timeCmotion studies, which were measured statistically. In order to maximize profits, the primary business drivers were efficiency and minimized cost. An organization would focus on training its workers to follow specific steps that re)uired narrowly focused skill and endurance. ,tandards and controls were mechanistic. Process drivers were maximized around distinct, insular, repeatable tasks. Dowever, given the business environment at that time, the business areas were intentionally soloed. In the "7E1s, technology increasingly became a business driver and amplified the speed of change. !his launched the first wave of process orientation. International 3-apanese4 companies became much more competitive, due, in part, to their focus on )uality improvement programs and reduced defects. +, companies started to mirror the )uality approach. !he combination of process scrutiny and technological superiority lead to technology as process driver. American business changed its operational paradigm, and the process era began. American business scrutiny of international competition changed focus to measurable processes and to speed that could be combined into A-ust in timeB manufacturing. !he growing use of computers in the "7#1s and %1s combined with procedure specialization that accommodated technological precision in fields such as nuclear power, and led to )uantitative statistical software and related data gathering techni)ues that measured, gathered, and interpreted results.