Michael Schwartz | SUNY: Stony Brook University (original) (raw)

Political and Policy Analysis by Michael Schwartz

Political Power and Social Theory, 1997

We argue that the underdeveloped concept, unintended consequences, first enunciated by Robert Mer... more We argue that the underdeveloped concept, unintended consequences, first enunciated by Robert Merton 60 years ago, can be usefully applied to understanding the impact of mass action on the ongoing process of social structuration. We offer three apparently distinct case studies: the civil rights movement at City University of New York in the 1960s, the migration of unpapered immigrants from El Salvador beginning in the 1970s, and the unionization of the automobile industry in the 1930s. In each case, the social impact extended far beyond the most ambitious hopes of participants and included changes that were both unanticipated and unintended. In many cases the consequences were also undesired. In all cases the initial impact became embedded in social institutions that became the agency and/or object of further social change, long after the initial impetus of mass action became invisible. We offer an analytic description of the processes by which mass action affects social structure.

Critical Sociology , 2018

Michael McCarthy's recent study, Dismantling Solidarity, tracks the development of pension system... more Michael McCarthy's recent study, Dismantling Solidarity, tracks the development of pension systems in the United States, focusing on the inflexion points that created the path dependent trajectories determining the current market-driven systems. This symposium examines McCarthy's assessment of the roles played by the US Federal Government, Wall Street, major industrial corporations, and the organized labor movement, and points to the implications of the study for understanding policy development, the role of class struggle in determining corporate and government policy,, and the contingent power of government institutions in regulating the conflict between capital and labor.

Politics & Society, 2018

The importance of overt levers of business political influence, notably campaign donations and lo... more The importance of overt levers of business political influence, notably campaign donations and lobbying, has been overemphasized. Using Executive branch policymaking during the Obama administration as a case study, this paper shows that those paths of influence are often not the most important. We place special emphasis on the structural power that large banks and corporations wield by virtue of their control over the flow of capital and the consequent impact on employment levels, credit availability, prices, and tax collection. At times, business disinvestment, combined with demands for government policy reforms, constitutes a conscious “capital strike,” which has the potential to shape political appointments, legislation, and policy implementation. Other times, the threat of disinvestment, the hint of a drop in “business confidence,” or rhetoric about job creation is sufficient to achieve these objectives. This analysis has important implications for our understanding of political power and social change in capitalist economies.

It is no surprise that Donald Trump is eager to cancel the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, one of th... more It is no surprise that Donald Trump is eager to cancel the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, one of the few Obama policies that increased the prospects for world peace. Trump is closely allied with the extreme right of the Republican Party, which opposed the deal from the start and which is eager to eliminate the Islamist government in Iran either through a direct U.S. invasion or by outsourcing the deed to Israel.

The surprise is that most of the U.S. foreign policy establishment wants to preserve the deal and lobbied hard, though unsuccessfully, to push Trump to recertify Iranian compliance. The future of the deal is now in the hands of Congress under the terms of the legislation that allowed Obama to suspend the sanctions. Sanctions will be reimposed only if majorities in the House and Senate vote to do so. We can expect intense lobbying from the military, from former diplomats, and behind the scenes from the State Department to prevent Congress from acting. Important U.S. business interests have also signaled their opposition to sanctions. This split among elites over Iran policy is longstanding, but since 2015 has matured into more institutionalized form.

Studying the Power Elite: Fifty Years of Who Rules America (New York, Routledge, 2017),: , 2017

G. William Domhoff's arresting biography of his masterwork, Who Rules America details the connec... more G. William Domhoff's arresting biography of his masterwork, Who Rules America details the connecting links and evolving analysis perfected in the new editions – and later additions – that comprise the corpus of Domhoff's power structure research. Such a comprehensive review of key ideas invites the respondents in this volume to point towards related work that extends and enriches the bedrock analysis that Domhoff has constructed. I
If Domhoff’s perspective is to remain useful in understanding 21st century dynamics, it must be extended to encompass semi-autonomous elites within the U.S. state system and beyond the U.S. territorial limits, and understand the leverage applied by mobilized publics within the United States as well as the global venues of U.S. economic and military aggression. Domhoff’s achievements in historical and sociological explanation demonstrate the intellectual importance of this task of extension and clarification. The moral crisis created by neoliberalism and dangerously deepened by the 2016 U.S. Presidential election underscores the urgency of this work.

The high cost of taxes and labor has had little causal impact on the decline of industrial manufa... more The high cost of taxes and labor has had little causal impact on the decline of industrial manufacturing in New York state. Most relocations are within the state or to border states with the same cost problems.

Airport detentions are collective punishment against communities of color, aimed at intimidating ... more Airport detentions are collective punishment against communities of color, aimed at intimidating people into passivity. We need to understanding how ICE detentions are part of a larger policy of instituting a reign of terror against communities of color.

Trump wants to seem all-powerful, but big business has a lot of leverage over his administration.

It’s not just “money in politics” — capitalists get what they want through structural power over ... more It’s not just “money in politics” — capitalists get what they want through structural power over the economy.

The importance of overt levers of business influence on government policy—notably campaign finance and lobbying—has been overemphasized. Using Executive branch financial policymaking during the Obama administration as a case study, this paper shows that those paths of influence are only two of many, and not, in this case, the most important. Drawing upon documents from the Federal Reserve Board and other regulatory agencies, reports from the business press, and policymaker memoirs, the paper places special emphasis on the structural power that large banks and corporations wield by virtue of their control over the flow of capital and its impact on employment levels, business investment, and tax collection. This control, often made visible by a drop in " business confidence, " is frequently sufficient to veto or weaken progressive policies, irrespective of more overt channels of influence like campaign finance or lobbying. At other times, economically disruptive disinvestment, combined with overt demands from the business community for government policy changes, constitutes an explicit " capital strike, " which then impacts many aspects of the policy process, including political appointments and policy implementation. This analysis has important implications for our understanding of political power in the United States and other capitalist economies.

Jacobin, Feb 6, 2017

Donald Trump presents himself as a “hard-driving, vicious cutthroat” leader, unfettered by “speci... more Donald Trump presents himself as a “hard-driving, vicious cutthroat” leader, unfettered by “special interests,” but he will have to confront the same constraints that all politicians in capitalist societies face. The need to maintain the flow of investments and to minimize economic disruption will force the administration to reconsider implementing parts of its extremist agenda. Understanding these contradictions, and how mass disruption can intensify them, is key to building an effective resistance movement.

Jacobin, Feb 3, 2017

Capitalists routinely exert leverage over governments by withholding the resources — jobs, credit... more Capitalists routinely exert leverage over governments by withholding the resources — jobs, credit, goods, and services — upon which society depends. The “capital strike” might take the form of layoffs, offshoring jobs and money, denying loans, or just a credible threat to do those things, along with a promise to relent once government delivers the desired policy changes. Government officials know this power well, and invest great energy and public resources in staving off fits by malcontent capitalists. The profoundly rotten campaign finance system is just one manifestation of business’s domination over government policy. The real power resides in the corporate world’s monopoly over the flow of capital.

ABSTRACT: Studies of the impact of social movements on government policy usually assume that the ... more ABSTRACT: Studies of the impact of social movements on government policy usually assume that the most effective strategy to win a reform is to directly pressure the elected politicians responsible for its legislation and implementation. We highlight an alternative, less intuitive way in which movements can exert political influence: by targeting the corporate and institutional adversaries of their proposed reforms. Such targeting can undermine their adversaries’ ability or commitment to oppose the changes, thus relaxing the contrary pressure applied to politicians and reducing the resistance within government to progressive reform. We support this proposition by highlighting five instances in which mass pressure applied to institutional adversaries contributed to government policy change. Our analysis demonstrates that mass protest targeting large institutions whose leaders are not elected can be an effective and even primary strategy for compelling elected officials to enact and implement progressive policy change.

We analyze Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act) as an illustration of the embeddedness of large co... more We analyze Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act) as an illustration of the embeddedness of large corporations in US policymaking. The head care industry sectors were centrally involved in the drafting, enacting, and implementation of the ACA. This involvement assured that their interests would receive priority, while public opinion and human rights considerations mattered little in shaping the legislation. This process offers a lens through which to understand how and why the government embraces the class interests of the corporate elite.

Much of Domhoff's evidence has been absorbed into academic scholarship about policy-making in Was... more Much of Domhoff's evidence has been absorbed into academic scholarship about policy-making in Washington, DC, particularly his documentation of the causal connections between external organizations of the corporate elites and government policy. Who Rules America Now presents an important recapitulation of his analysis, which many academics have failed to confront, as a well responses to the challenges raised to his arguments. A missing element here (and in Domhoff's other works) is a coherent analysis of the mechanisms that allow the corporate elite to impose internal unity when (potential) conflicts of interest among business sectors threaten coherent collective action vis-a-vis government policies.

Contemporary Sociology, 1999

This article analyzes a critical strand of the classwide business organization that facilitates c... more This article analyzes a critical strand of the classwide business organization that facilitates collective political action by business. That strand is an overarching and diffusely structured network of shared directorships among large companies. The network has helped define a group of senior company executives who are in a position to aggregate and promote general business political concerns. The creation of this inner circle of top corporate managers has been the critical ingredient in facilitating the emergence of classwide political behavior.

Counterpunch, Jul 15, 2015

Why is President Obama’s deal to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—a plan also suppor... more Why is President Obama’s deal to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—a plan also supported by all the other major world powers—arousing such opposition in the United States and Israel? The reasons given by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the war hawks in the U.S. Senate are bogus, rejected even by U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies. This latest “great debate” is only nominally about nukes; it is really another chapter in the longstanding effort of the United States (and junior partner Israel) to establish dominance in the Middle East. This episode focuses on finding an effective strategy for removing or domesticating the Islamist regime in Iran, and on which of the countries in the region will be the on-site agent of U.S. hegemony.

Abstract: This uncommonly coherent collection explains how Bill Clinton consolidated the conserva... more Abstract:
This uncommonly coherent collection explains how Bill Clinton consolidated the conservative economic and social agendas of the Reagan and bush administrations. Disputing arguments that Clinton was responding to an electorate that had shifted rightward, the collection argues that the disproportionate capacity of business elites to mobilize fiscal, institutional, legal, and ideological resources explains his conservatism.

This interview concerns the relationship between the neo-liberal reforms which began in the 1970s... more This interview concerns the relationship between the neo-liberal reforms which began in the 1970s and the 21 st century activism of the United States military, which Schwartz calls military-neoliberalism. One key element of this relationship can be seen in the contrast between neoliberal reform in Chile and the economic reforms imposed on Iraq by the 2003 U.S. invasion. In Chile neoliberal reform brought immiserating working conditions along with privatization and infusions of foreign capital, within the context of preserving the political and economic institutional structures. In Iraq, the same economic policies required the destruction of state-centered capitalism and the entire political structure– a transformation enacted by the full force of military occupation. The marriage of militarism and neoliberal economic policy, definitively enacted in Iraq and Afghanistan, finds expression in the escalation of racist state violence inside the United States and other countries in the core f the world system. Super incarceration in the United States, escalating levels of violence within minority communities, and the arming and training of local police as an occupying army in minority communities, are all expressions of the domestic enactment of military neoliberalism. The massive refugee crises in the last fifteen years are a consequence of the proliferation of military neoliberal offensives in the Middle East and elsewhere. Because even indigenous police forces and armies act as occupying armies, displacement is the collateral damage resulting from applying the full range of racist violence against these communities. When one or more contenders receive support from the United States or another source of modern military equipment, their attacks on community generate massive displaced populations from areas that are fully devastated. The consequence is huge refugee populations unable to return to their permanently destroyed communities. The refugee populations have been generated mainly by the weaponry wielded by big powers – minaly the United States – or supplied by Big Powers to their client regimes. Nevertheless, they have been portrayed unworthy miscreants instead of victims; and unworthy of anything but minimal charity. Through a racification process, this posture has become built into cascades of bigotry and aggression, which then justifies amplified military violence in the countries of origin and enhance police violence against refugees who arrive at the global core. One consequence of the now-worldwide dimension of the military neoliberalism – so that we have military first policies in all countries, from the furthest periphery to the United States at the global core – is the rise of Trumpism and other forms of bigoted populism in the global core. The contrast between Trump and Bernie Sanders during the U.S. presidential campaign, brings this pattern into sharp relief. While the vast majority of both candidates' supporters saw the system as working against their interest, the Trump supporters felt that the beneficiaries of this injust system were minorities, immigrants, and feminists, while Sander's supporters felt that the beneficiaries were the corporate establishment, or which Trump was a part. The connection between Trumpism and neoliberalism thus emerges through the process of militarization – by treating indigenous communities as enemy combatants, the U.S. (and other core governments) have built the bigotry that translates into support for Trump's promises of defintivelyy attacking these communities.

Political Power and Social Theory, 1997

Critical Sociology , 2018

Politics & Society, 2018

Studying the Power Elite: Fifty Years of Who Rules America (New York, Routledge, 2017),: , 2017

Trump wants to seem all-powerful, but big business has a lot of leverage over his administration.

Jacobin, Feb 6, 2017

Jacobin, Feb 3, 2017

Contemporary Sociology, 1999

Counterpunch, Jul 15, 2015

Jacobin, 2021

The Bush administration was already planning to invade Iraq before 9/11, but the attacks supplied... more The Bush administration was already planning to invade Iraq before 9/11, but the attacks supplied the necessary pretext. The catastrophic war that followed turned Iraq into an ungovernable wasteland.

Neo-liberal reform in the Global South has produced a pattern of immiseration that is characteriz... more Neo-liberal reform in the Global South has produced a pattern of immiseration that is characterized by what David Harvey has called accumulation by dispossession, a process that destroys the fixed and human capital of the host country while producing huge profits for outside multinational corporations, while producing 'cities of slums' that become repositories for severely impoverished economically excluded populations. While this neo-liberal degradation of host country economies usually takes a decade or longer, the American occupation of Iraq produced the same immiseration in just three years. The American military onslaught, combined with the 'shock treatment' of neo-liberal economic measures, reduced the Iraqi economy, once among the most advanced in the non-industrial world, to conditions that rival those of the most degraded nations in the Global South. The initial American invasion damaged the already weakened infrastructure in many, but by no means all, Iraqi cities; while the subsequent fighting substantially extended the devastation. Areas which were not war zones were drawn into the widening circle of degradation as the failures in electricity impacted all regions, and as the destroyed upstream sewage system contaminated drinking water, irrigation and fishing throughout the country. Reconstruction budgets were, even by official estimates, incapable of repairing the damage, and they were made more inadequate by the ongoing war, successive reductions (instead of increases) in the allocations and siphoning off of resources for security expenses. In a crystalline example of accumulation by dispossession, US reconstruction policy made the potentially temporary devastation of the war permanent by seeking to impose a free trade market system on a socialist economy. The occupation introduced an extreme version of what has become known as economic 'shock treatment', idling state-owned enterprises that accounted for 35 percent of the economy and contracting with multinational firms to demolish functioning infrastructure and replace it with new systems that were incompatible with existing technologies and local expertise. The new construction was sabotaged by the contractors' inexperience with the Iraqi physical and economic environment , by widespread corruption, by cost-plus contracts that incented them to undertake over-ambitious projects that could not be completed, and by the expenses associated with resolving the incompatibilities with in-place facilities. Few projects were completed and those that were completed could not be maintained by Iraqi professionals or technicians, and fell into disrepair. With the exhaustion of American reconstruction dollars, the foreign contractors disappeared , leaving a deconstructed Iraq populated by cities of slums.

U.S. invasions of insurgency-held Iraqi cities in 2004-2005 were not designed to restore order; t... more U.S. invasions of insurgency-held Iraqi cities in 2004-2005 were not designed to restore order; they were, instead, intended to prevent the consolidation of a very orderly anti-American status quo in a constantly expanding set of "liberated" areas ruled by locally insurgent groups. These invasions underscore the larger contradictions in American policy in Iraq: that the chaos American leaders kept claiming to end involved creating chaos in stable areas, a chaos that became chronic if the U.S. military forces succeeded in destroying these nascent city-states. This process is illustrated by examining the development of the Sadrist-led regime in Sadr City, Baghdad.

I am hoping that this piece will move the needle just a tad in terms of the controversy/outrage o... more I am hoping that this piece will move the needle just a tad in terms of the controversy/outrage over Israel’s treatment of the Gazans—and the Palestinians more generally. What I think it shows is that the ferocity of Israel’s attacks derives from a kind of “banality of evil” logic that is all too familiar for those of us who see and protest the willingness of the U.S. government to sacrifice the lives of multitudes of folks on foreign lands in order to acquire/appropriate/exploit the resources to be found there (e.g., agricultural products in central America countless times, oil in Iraq three times so far, Caspian hydrocarbons in Afghanistan, etc., etc.). And—of course—the U.S. always invokes racist stereotypes to give plausibility to its thinly veiled “protecting the homeland” justifications.

By bringing into focus the scramble/battles/wars for Eastern Mediterranean natural gas, I am trying to unveil the Israel government as a would-be “great power”—really an acolyte of the USA—which uses a powerful military and brutal forms of warfare to acquire/appropriate/exploit the natural resources in neighboring countries, all the while utilizing racist stereotypes to give plausibility to their invocations of “existential threats.”

In negotiating the deal with Iran, the Obama Administration is taking one step toward a change in... more In negotiating the deal with Iran, the Obama Administration is taking one step toward a change in posture toward Iran, forced of course by the fading U.S. power and failing military efforts in the Middle East. The key to U.S. policy until now has been unremitting effort to dislodge the Islamic regime, using military, economic and political leverage. The constant attention to Iran’s nuclear project has always been a diversion from the regime change goals, but it does have one element of urgency: were Iran to get a nuclear weapon, it would be a definitive deterrent against a military effort at regime change. So the agreement codifies that Iran will not get a nuclear weapon for the foreseeable future, and thus preserve the possibility regime change achieved through military action. But in exchange, the Obama administration has to give up the economic war, thus removing the immediate pressure on the regime. To make this pill easier to swallow, the economic detente will be utilized (by the Western powers) to re-integrate Iran into the global economy—i.e., opening it to global corporations. However, this increasing presence of global capitalism in Iran will also make less vulnerable to regime change, both because the government will be more resourceful and because any military attack would hurt the interest of the global corporations that the U.S. is so loyal to.

So this agreement is a tentative step toward “reintegrating” Iran into the (U.S. dominated) “global economy.” If it does open Iran to Western investment, the agreement can be a non-military route to bring Iran back into the U.S. orbit, as it was under the Shah until 1979.

Sounds like a good deal for the U.S.—using economic investment to achieve what military incursions and threats and economic boycotts have not achieved over the last forty years. So why the opposition? Well, in the case of Israel, this would constitute a shift away from U.S. reliance on Israel as the prime Ally in the regime, it would constitute a shift away from the military-primary policies that Israel is wedded to, and it would allow Iran to become an even more formidable opponent to Israeli influence in the region. And, at home, it would constitute a first, tentative step away from the military-first/military-primary/military-always foreign policy that the GOP and most Democrats have favored; and which that the U.S. government has pursued at least since the fall of the Soviet Union.

A state-of-the-art research study published in October 12, 2006 issue of The Lancet (the most pre... more A state-of-the-art research study published in October 12, 2006 issue of The Lancet (the most prestigious British medical journal) concluded that—as of a year ago—600,000 Iraqis had died violently due to the war in Iraq. That is, the Iraqi death rate for the first 39 months of the war was just about 15,000 per month. That wasn't the worst of it, because the death rate was increasing precipitously, and during the first half of 2006 the monthly rate was approximately 30,000 per month, a rate that no doubt has increased further during the ferocious fighting associated with the current American surge. few news items mention the Lancet study.

During the Iraq war, and all insurgencies, guerrilla warfare and terrorism are contradictory tend... more During the Iraq war, and all insurgencies, guerrilla warfare and terrorism are contradictory tendencies that struggle for dominance within the resistance movement. Using the Iraq War, this article discusses the degree to which the two modalities coexist and the determinants of which prevails

The Actual events that led to the US re-newed intervention in Iraq.

TomDispatch, Feb 15, 2011

This article seeks to understand the dynamics of twenty-first century military intervention by th... more This article seeks to understand the dynamics of twenty-first century military intervention by the United States and its allies. Based on an analysis of Bush and Obama administration policy documents, we note that these wars are new departures from previous interventions, calling on the military to undertake post-conflict reconstruction in ways that was previously left to indigenous government or to the civilian aspects of the occupation. This military-primary reconstruction is harnessed to ambitious neoliberal economics aimed at transforming the host country’s political economy. Utilizing the Iraq and Afghanistan interventions as case studies, the study analyzes the dynamics set in motion by this policy. The key processes are two concatenated cycles of military pacification and economic immiseration in discrete localities operating through varying paths of causation. Pacification by the military as well as subsequent military-primary introduction of neoliberal economic reform generates immiseration; locally based resistance. as well as ameliorating efforts aimed at reconstructing the old system, generates repacification. Each iteration of the cycle deepens the humanitarian crisis, and assures new rounds of local and sometimes national resistance.

Beth Mintz, Peter Freitag, Carolyn Hendricks and Michael Schwartz, "Problems of Proof in Elite Re... more Beth Mintz, Peter Freitag, Carolyn Hendricks and Michael Schwartz, "Problems of Proof in Elite Research," Social Problems 23 (February l976), 3l4-324.

We develop and illustrate two applications of Bonacich centrality analyzes to large sparse netwo... more We develop and illustrate two applications of Bonacich centrality analyzes to large sparse networks. We first point to and define the difference between derived and reflected centrality in large networks; and then apply this distinction to describe the how key nodes in the network can be distinguished by their reliance on hub or bridge centrality.

The role of banks in the interlock network--and in the corporate world--has been a long discussed... more The role of banks in the interlock network--and in the corporate
world--has been a long discussed issue, but the connection between finance capital and interest group formationh as been mostly ignored. This study seeks to reintegrate these ideas. More specifically,
this article addresses two questions. First, it considers
whethert the corporate world is organized into groupings around financial institutions, as described by the theory of bank control.. Second, it explores the implications of interest group formation on corporate union.

The traditional theory of finance capital assumes both intragroup unity on the one hand, and fierce intergroup competition on the other. We propose an alternate portrait that challenges both strong assumptions. We explore the circumstances when intragroup unity is significantly relaxed, whle intergroup competition is displaced by broad corporate unity.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1984

ABSTRACT: Job loss and plant closings have, until recently, been consid- ered part of the inevita... more ABSTRACT: Job loss and plant closings have, until recently, been consid- ered part of the inevitable cycle adjustments of economic growth. Since the late 1970s, however, a multifaceted debate has developed relating to the possible permanence of industrial decline in the American Northeast. Postindustrial and product life-cycle theories maintain an optimistic per- spective predicting offsetting job gains in new sectors; while capital mobil- ity theory predicts accelerated job loss and long-term depression. Evidence from the New York State Industrial Migration File offers little cause for optimism. Between 1960 and 1980, state job capacity declined by 200,000, a result of both an increase in disinvestment and a decrease in new invest- ment. Contraction took place in every region and industrial sector. There is questionable evidence of compensatory expansion to offset contraction during most years as a consequence of physical changes in plant and equipment investment. Multilocal firms showed a much greater propensity to disinvest than local firms, suggesting support for capital mobility theory

The Key to understanding Ron Burt's Structural Holes (and appreciating the potentially enormous ... more The Key to understanding Ron Burt's Structural Holes (and appreciating the potentially enormous impact it might have on sociological thought) is to view it as a theoretical work Burt is attempting to encompass within a single integrated argument all network theories,, all organizational sociology, a substantial proportion of recent thinking of racial and gender discrimination, and even a significant part of psychoanalytic theory. The ambitiousness of the enterprise is expressed in these two consecutive sentences: "When the constrained player is an organization, the structural hole argument is a revised theory of the firm....When the constrained player is a person the argument is a description of personality" (p.229)

This paper analyzes the role of the American steel industry in shaping its own destiny and that o... more This paper analyzes the role of the American steel industry in shaping its own destiny and that of its workers and host localities. This case study of what many observers have seen as the crassest exercise of raw economic power (see, e.g., Lynd, 1983; Buss and
Redburn, 1983) allows us to modify our understanding of power in two significant ways. First, this chronology brings into focus the many constraints which limit the viable choices of even the most powerful social actors. Second, it demonstrates that power is often ephemeral-the institutional leverage which enables its exercise may
soon pass to other actors or dissolve altogether.

For most scholars the key element that distinguished the flexible and efficient Toyota automobile... more For most scholars the key element that distinguished the flexible and efficient Toyota automobile manufacturing system from the inflexible and inefficient mass production systems in Detroit could be found in the tight coupling between part manufacturing and final assembly. And the linchpin of this tight coupling was the just-in-time inventory systems that brought these parts to the assemblers without either production interruption of expensive stock piles. We demonstrate that these features of Toyotaism were also central features to the Detroit production culture before World War II, and that they conferred the same flexibility and efficiency on the pre-World War II automobile industry. The inefficient system that could not compete with Toyotaism in the 1970s was actually constructed after World War II.

Social Problems, Dec 1981

This paper examines the structure of intercorporate unity in the United States through an analysi... more This paper examines the structure of intercorporate unity in the United States through an analysis of interlocking directorates. Our findings suggest that the major organizing institutions within the corporate world are the largest New York commercial banks, themselves united by a small number of of prominent insurance companies. These institutions lend a order to corporate affairs and maintain a loose unity among firms. Although sources of conflict remain, patterns of director interlocks emphasize the capacity for cohesion supplied by the financial sector and suggest that mechanisms for conflict resolution reside within US.business

We present a sociological analysis of regional political economies specifically examining industr... more We present a sociological analysis of regional political economies specifically examining industrial migration in New York State. Regional production cultures create imperatives to remain in the region, even if the local area has high costs compared to other viable sites. Migration occurs only when the core establishments in a region--the central nodes in the regional exchange network--face outside competition that threatens to permanently undermine their viability. Under such circumstances, only these core establishments can respond to lower costs elsewhere. Peripheral firms are usually too dependent on the material, political, and social resources available in the local production culture to risk departure, even when production costs might be substantially reduced. Core departure therefore produces industrial decline.

We explore the role of capital in health care expansion and we broaden the traditional focus on ... more We explore the role of capital in health care expansion and we broaden the traditional focus on capital within the private sector to include public expenditures and subsidies as part of a system of capital flows that constrain corporate development. We understand the development of the US health care system as driven by the interaction between the public and private sectors: Actions of the state create constraints on private investment and subsequent private investment decisions create equally compelling constraints on subsequent public policy. We thus view the growth of corporate capital as a constrained consequence of these earlier dynamics. We suggest that government spending patterns can have as profound an effect on corporate development as legislative activity, and we believe this has important implications for the development for understanding the dynamics of health care systems.

This paper reviews the two most prominent methodological procedures used in the study of elites: ... more This paper reviews the two most prominent methodological procedures used in the study of elites: social background investigations and decision-making analyses. Neither of these methodologies when used alone can resolve the power structure debate. Social background analyses do not take into account the possibility that individuals may not, in all cases, represent the social groups from which they are recruited. Decision-making analyses fail to investigate the process of policy formulation and therefore cannot identify which groups control government institutions. Two research strategies are offered in an attempt to cast new light on the controversy; however, researchers are cautioned to pay close attention to theory construction and to the creation and expression of complete and sophisticated theories that admit to detailed analysis and empirical test.The valid theory will be that which remains unmodified through a series of tests, while the opposition theory is repeatedly revised because of its inability to explain new data.

We review the history of searching for interest groups within the corporate world centered around... more We review the history of searching for interest groups within the corporate world centered around finance capital and banks in particular. We utilize detailed analysis of corporate interlocks to identify a larger pattern that connects the center of finance capital to the bulk of the corporate world, creating an integrated network of influence and control.

Major conflicts exist within the American business community. In order to act in unison, the corp... more Major conflicts exist within the American business community. In order to act in unison, the corporate elite must transcend the differences in interest that create these conflicts. In this article we consider the mechanisms that allow for these conflicts to be overcome, and the systemic processes that allow this ironing out of differences to regularly occur. We focus on the hegemonic role in banks and other large financial institutions is accomplishing the process, and trace out a detailed portrait of the larger institutional structure in which hegemony operates.

Economic policy formation has become a subdiscipline of political sociology and political science... more Economic policy formation has become a subdiscipline of political sociology and political science. Underlying this focus is the pluralist assumption that the government has the mandate to regulate corporate activity and the power to impose its will on business, if necessary. Economic planning, therefore, occurs only when the government initiates it; it is never a consequence of independent action by business.

The theory of financial hegemony undermines this argument by focusing on those occasions when banks and insurance companies are able to impose policy upon resistant nonfinancial firms or actors. These decisions demonstrate the inadequacy of the assumption that large corporation operated autonomously, constrainted by markets, but incapable of coordinated investment policy;, and the corresponding weakness of any analysis that relies exclusively on the notion of a competitive market system. Moreover, the structural leverage resulting from the concentration of investment capital can sometimes be applied to a broad spectrum of companies simultaneously, thus providing the power to implement economic policies without the intervention of the state.

The theory of financial hegemony, therefore, provides the basis for a broad reorganization of our understanding of economic and political policies. To understand this process, we offer examples of the imposition of financial decision- making on three types of business units: individual firms, industrial sectors, and national economies.

American Sociological Review, 1981

Using date on interlocking directorates, we test three theories of corporate organization: manage... more Using date on interlocking directorates, we test three theories of corporate organization: managerialism, coalition theory, and the theory of finance capital. Findings indicate that the modern corporation is not an autonomous unit as suggested by managerialism, that firms do not form flexible alliances which pursue mutual interests, as implied by coalition theory, and that the interest groups of traditional finance capital theory do not characterize the interlock network of the 1960s. Instead, the system is dominated by a handful of interconnected major New York commercial banks and insurance companies which form the center of an integrated national network.

The eclipse of managerial theory has led to a large body of research that describes and analyzes ... more The eclipse of managerial theory has led to a large body of research that describes and analyzes the various mechanisms temporarily or permanently biding large corporations to each other. These bonds may produce coordinate behavior, either through mutually beneficial cooperation or through coercive power that forces one company to serve the other's interest.
In this article we explore these sources of unity focusing particularly on the mechanisms that allow one firm to constrain or coerce another. Their cumulative impact is a quasi hierarchical arrangement in which major financial institutions are central actors. We call the decision-making leadership that accrues to the executives of major banks and insurance companies financial hegemony

Michael Useem and others have demonstrated that the inner circle of the corporate elite is instit... more Michael Useem and others have demonstrated that the inner circle of the corporate elite is institutionally capable of apprehending and promoting the general interests of the business community. This article examines the inner group of directors among St. Louis, Missouri, corporations, documents their centrality in the center of networks of economic power, and documents how the inner circle influence the lending policy of the dominant banks in the region, and the consequences of these policies for residential and commercial development in the region.

This article reviews the research on the significance of director interlocks for corporate decis... more This article reviews the research on the significance of director interlocks for corporate decision-making. Some interlocks represent corporation-corporation connections that facilitate formal coordination. Others represent person-person connections that facilitate informal coordination.

Scientific American, 2021

Good social movements are emancipatory; bad social movements are exclusionary.. Emanciipatory so... more Good social movements are emancipatory; bad social movements are exclusionary.. Emanciipatory social change originates in good social movements, and not from institutional elites. Good social movements move the arc of social change to social justice by interfering with institutional oppression and therefore forcing elites to concede emancipatory change.

Partecipazione e COnflitto (Participation and Conflict), 2019

We seek to clarify the nature of militant student protest by proposing a theoretical distinction ... more We seek to clarify the nature of militant student protest by proposing a theoretical distinction between two types of student-movement-initiated disruption that are too-often viewed as similar: structural disruption within educational institutions, centered around students' refusal to perform their role as such; and invasive disruption of other institutions, in whose functioning students do not have a routinized role. By drawing on a newspaper-based database of student-initiated protest in Argentina, triangulated by analysis of secondary accounts of these events and in-depth interviews with the activists who planned and implemented the protest, we seek to understand the strategic logic that leads to disruptive protest and to explore the differing dynamics that characterize structural and invasive disruption. Both structural and invasive protest by students (and other organized social groupings) can successfully interfere with the normal functioning of society and can therefore create usable leverage against institutional power holders. However, the tactical choice and the outcome of such confrontations derives from a complex equation of situational variables. The variables specific to student protest include the institutional target designated for disruption, whether the target has the formal authority and/or resources to grant the demanded reform, whether non-students who work or otherwise participate in the targeted structure support or oppose the demands and tactics of the students, and whether the protesting students have active allies among various non-student stakeholders. We conclude that structural disruption on campus can be a surer and less difficult-to-implement strategy, that it can generate leverage without the creation of alliances with outside groups and can force concessions if the administration has the authority and resources to deliver meaningful reform. In many circumstances , however, the institutional educational leadership cannot deliver meaningful concessions, and students therefore consider invasive disruption of neighboring structures aimed at delivering more comprehensive reforms, and consequently face far more complicated strategic and tactical decisions if they wish to generate productive leverage. These strategic and tactical choices rely on congealed experience from current and prior student protest and their capacity to generate alliances mediated by their understanding of what can succeed.

We examine the conflict between leaders and members in protest organizations and challenge Robert... more We examine the conflict between leaders and members in protest organizations and challenge Robert Michels' argument that both oligarchy and goal displacement are inevitable in such settings. An examination of protest organizations shows there is often conflict between the interests of membership, the needs of leadership and the requirements for organizational permanence. Our study of the Southern Farmers' Alliance shows that the leadership's pursuit of its own interests con- tributed to both the rejection of a potentially successful reform program and the demise of the organization

Journal of Classical Sociology, 2012

The desire to overcome the alienated labor of capitalism manifests itself in the daily actions of... more The desire to overcome the alienated labor of capitalism manifests itself in the daily actions of people everywhere. John Holloway argues that social movements must build upon this liberatory impulse, challenging not only the rate of exploitation but also workers’ loss of control over the process of production and allocation (and by implication, the loss of control in other arenas of life). Revolutionary change, in turn, will result from these movements creating thousands of “cracks” in the capitalist system by asserting alternative ways of living. Holloway’s argument for prefigurative movements is ambiguous on several points, however: the role of political organizations, the role of alternative institutions, and the appropriate approach of social movements to the state. We propose some friendly amendments, placing greater emphasis on the need for strong political organizations and counter-institutions, but also for selective engagement with dominant institutions. A revolutionary strategy must combine the construction of prefigurative counter-institutions with struggles for reform of existing structures. Yet the dangers of oligarchization and hierarchy within movements are very real, and thus require structures that are ruthlessly democratic and ideologies that are explicitly intersectional in their approach to fighting different forms of oppression.

I argue that W.E.B. Du Bois’ expulsion from academic sociology at the beginning of the twentieth ... more I argue that W.E.B. Du Bois’ expulsion from academic sociology at the beginning of the twentieth century was not only animated by the gatekeepers’ desire to maintain academe as a whites-only domain. It also constituted an active effort to defend Social Darwinist dogma, which dominated (white) social science at that time, from the formidable challenge of a resourceful and scientifically superior perspective. The successful exclusion of Du Bois (and his growing legion of colleagues) allowed sociology to drift into functionalist dogma, with its immutable hierarchy and denial of sociology’s role in facilitating social change. The exclusion of Du Boisean analysis, which placed human agency – and especially subaltern groups – at the centre of social change – rendered sociological analysis irrelevant to addressing social problems and social justice, until the Civil Rights Movement in America broke down the walls of the sociological ghetto, allowing it to access the rich Du Boisean perspective

Michael Schwartz, in this book, directs his attention to the social structure of a protest organi... more Michael Schwartz, in this book, directs his attention to the social structure of a protest organization – the Southern Farmers’ Alliance, which arose in the 1880s and lasted for a decade – and the sources and pattern of intergroup conflict that characterize this type of organization. About two-fifths of the book is devoted to a very careful, reflective, and systematic analysis of the diverse perspectives and theories of social movements. Schwartz’s critique,his own theory of organized protest as a rational phenomenon, and his presentation of a number of assumptions about conflict and power make this provocative book a major contribution to the study of the rational side of social movements and protest behavior.

We ask why most online signature campaigns attract only a handful of supporters while a few are b... more We ask why most online signature campaigns attract only a handful of supporters while a few are backed by millions. Using a field-experimental design on the popular petitioning website Change.org, we investigate the role of emergent phenomena during the mobilization process in determining levels of collective action. We demonstrate the significance of these emergent processes while controlling the structural profiles, organizing strategies, and initial signatory volumes of online petition campaigns. Differences in ultimate signatory support among similar petitions are as extreme as theories of critical mass and tipping points would suggest, yet the dynamics leading up to these arbitrary disparities are unexpected. Growth is highly erratic, with initially unpopular campaigns experiencing wholly unexpected revivals, limiting the predictability of future from past momentum to just the short run. The mechanism we identify driving these unpredictable dynamics we call " accidental activation, " the unanticipated recruitment of secondary mobilizers.

American Journal of Sociology, 2002

... BOOK REVIEWS Political Theory Calhoun and Popular Rule: The Political Theory of the Disquisit... more ... BOOK REVIEWS Political Theory Calhoun and Popular Rule: The Political Theory of the Disquisition and Discourse. ... It is with this sort of view in mind that H. Lee Cheek, Jr.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;s provocative and cogently argued book on the political thought of John C. Calhoun ought to be read. ...

Political Power and Social Theory, 1997

From the beginning of the US occupation until the current civil war in Iraq, the resistance has i... more From the beginning of the US occupation until the current civil war in Iraq, the resistance has included both terrorist groups and guerrilla warfare. this article seeks to understand the different origins and consequences of guerrilla warfare and terrorism as strategies for resisting occupation.

we explore whether Goodwin's hypothesis that social movement scholars are ignoring the relationsh... more we explore whether Goodwin's hypothesis that social movement scholars are ignoring the relationship between social protest and the structure of capitalism.

Jacobin, May 18, 2015

While it is usually assumed that the best way to change government policies is to pressure politi... more While it is usually assumed that the best way to change government policies is to pressure politicians or elect different ones, we propose that movements are more effective when they target the corporate and institutional interests that control public policy behind-the-scenes. We discuss several historical as well as current-day examples, and conclude with some thoughts on how this reform strategy might help advance the broader goals of movement-building and revolutionary transformation.

Mobilization, Sep 2014

Studies of the impact of social movements on government policy usually assume that the most effec... more Studies of the impact of social movements on government policy usually assume that the most effective strategy to win a reform is to directly pressure the elected politicians responsible for its legislation and implementation. We highlight an alternative, less intuitive way in which movements can exert political influence: by targeting the corporate and institutional adversaries of their proposed reforms. Such targeting can undermine their adversaries’ ability or commitment to oppose the changes, thus relaxing the contrary pressure applied to politicians and reducing the resistance within government to progressive reform. We support this proposition by highlighting five instances in which mass pressure applied to institutional adversaries contributed to government policy change. Our analysis demonstrates that mass protest targeting large institutions whose leaders are not elected can be an effective and even primary strategy for compelling elected officials to enact and implement progressive policy change.

We ask why it is that most signature campaigns attract only a handful of supporters while a few a... more We ask why it is that most signature campaigns attract only a handful of supporters while a few are backed by millions. Using a field experimental design on the popular petitioning website Change.org, we investigate the role of emergent phenomena during the mobilization process in determining levels of collective action. We demonstrate the significant character of these emergent processes while controlling the structural profiles, organizing strategies, and initial signatory volumes of online petition campaigns. Differences in ultimate signatory support between similar petitions are as extreme as theories of critical mass and tipping points would suggest, yet the dynamics leading up to these arbitrary inequalities are unexpected; growth is highly erratic with initially unpopular campaigns experiencing wholly unexpected revivals, limiting the predictability of future from past momentum to just the short run. The mechanism we identify driving these unpredictable dynamics we call ‘accidental activation’: the unanticipated recruitment of secondary mobilizers

in Morris and Mueller (eds), Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, 1992

Contemporary Sociology, 2006

The accelerated deindustrialization of Detroit during the 1970s was indeed a reaction by the Big ... more The accelerated deindustrialization of Detroit during the 1970s was indeed a reaction by the Big Three to the arrival of Japanese (and European) automobiles in the US market, but high wages in Detroit were not the primary or even secondary reason for their actions. Instead, the 1970s crisis derived from the incapacity of the Big Three to match the new and upgraded features incorporated into the imports and/or implement flexible production systems that would allow continuous improvement in production efficiency. Moreover, these incapacities were not timeless features of “Fordism.” Forty years earlier, the Detroit production culture had been home to a fully flexible production system that was copied in Europe and Japan in the years after World War II. But, as the system was implemented overseas, the captains of capital in Detroit dismantled it as part of a successful effort to defeat the campaign of unionized auto workers, who were utilizing the leverage flexible production conferred to demand a proportionate share of the massive profits it generated and to attain a degree of veto power over the intensification of the work process. Ironically, had the workers succeeded in resisting this attack on their power, Detroit would have been much better positioned to match the price and quality of the imports. Their lack of success meant that when the flexible producers from Japan and Europe arrived in the U.S. market, the Big Three were unable to implement innovations. This led to the accelerated departures from Detroit in search of rock bottom labor costs to offset the efficiency advantages of the flexible producers, while Detroit declined from the most prosperous to most impoverished large city in the United States

The desire to overcome the alienated labor of capitalism manifests itself in the daily actions of... more The desire to overcome the alienated labor of capitalism manifests itself in the daily actions of people everywhere. John Holloway argues that social movements must build upon this liberatory impulse, challenging not only the rate of exploitation but also workers' loss of control over the process of production and allocation (and, by implication, the loss of control in other arenas of life). Revolutionary change, in turn, will result from these movements creating thousands of 'cracks' in the capitalist system by asserting alternative ways of living. Holloway's argument for prefigurative movements is ambiguous on several points, however: the role of political organizations, the role of alternative institutions, and the appropriate approach of social movements to the state. We propose some friendly amendments, placing greater emphasis on the need for strong political organizations and counter-institutions, but also for selective engagement with dominant institutions. A revolutionary strategy must combine the construction of prefigurative counter-institutions with struggles for reform of existing structures. Yet the dangers of oligarchization and hierarchy within movements are very real, and thus there is a need for structures that are ruthlessly democratic and ideologies that are explicitly intersectional in their approach to fighting different forms of oppression.

Morton Schoolman and Alvin Magid (eds.), Reindustrializing New York State. Albany: State University of New York Press, l986, 75-89., 1986

Based on a 100% sample of all industrial openings, expansions, contractions and closings in New Y... more Based on a 100% sample of all industrial openings, expansions, contractions and closings in New York State between 1965 and 1975, were offer a statistical portrait of industrial decline in New York State. During this turning-point period, there were many more expansions and openings thanclosures and contractions, but the closures tended to be much larger, and often involving more than 100 employees. Contractions, expansions, and openings tended to be much smaller and therefore the balance was steeply in favor of job-loss in all sectors and regions of the state. There was a large disproportion of closings among subsidiaries of larger, multilocal companies

Political Power and Social Theory, 1988

This study seeks to understand the institutional conditions under which governments try to influe... more This study seeks to understand the institutional conditions under which governments try to influence national and local political-economic trajectories, a question that is particularly perplexing in advanced, interdependent capitalist economies dominated by multinational corporations. We focus on deindustrialization, because it is an important phenomenon in its own right, and because its global prevalence and impact test the efficacy of the modern state’s ability to control economic trajectories. The response of the governments of the United States and France to deindustrialization include a wide range of ameliorative strategies, but all within the framework of altering markets for products or labor in order to benefit declining firms or sectors, without regulating capital flows. We conclude that such efforts cannot succeed within the framework of market economies, and that effective remedies must include state influence – and even control – over regional or national investment decisions.

Just-in-time inventories have been portrayed as the centerpiece of the flexible production system... more Just-in-time inventories have been portrayed as the centerpiece of the flexible production system developed by Toyota, and the key element in outperforming the mass production systems utilized in the United States. We demonstrate that just-in-time inventories--and other elements of flexible production--were pioneered by the US auto industry in the first part of the 20th century; were the key elements in making Detroit the global capital of auto production, and were abandoned by Detroit just as Toyota was copying the system in Japan.

In this article we use the Great Flint Sit-Down Strike as a strategic case for examining the issu... more In this article we use the Great Flint Sit-Down Strike as a strategic case for examining the issue of movement success in seemingly disadvantageous structural conditions. Through an application and elaboration of social movement and organizational theory to the Flint sit-down strike we identify four key factors that help to explain the emergence of successful collective defiance by labor: (1) the
violation of the autoworkers’ moral economy by General Motors; (2) the organizational flexibility of the UAW in adding new, revised, or revived mobilization and direct action strategies to protest repertoires to take advantage of preexisting social structures; (3) the identification of the sit-down strike as a strategy that leveraged the positional power of autoworkers; and (4) the on-the-ground organizational
model used by the UAW, which allowed for democratic decision making that took advantage of local conditions.

The 1936-37 Flint sit-down strike was a watershed moment in the history of the U.S. labor movemen... more The 1936-37 Flint sit-down strike was a watershed moment in the history of the U.S. labor movement. Intuition might suggest that an explosion of anger and concerted union organizing would have taken place by 1932, when wages and benefits reached the bottom during an extended period of unmediated production increases. Paradoxically, the workers waited, and began their revolt during a time of visible improvement.
Accordingly, the Flint sit-down strike is an ideal case study for answering a question that is central to both social movement research and studies on the process of class formation: what are the conditions that are necessary for a group of individuals, who share a common position in the social structure, to collectively rise up and successfully defend their common interests? Our analysis of the Flint strike suggests that four key differences between the early years of the Great Depression and 1936 help to explain the late emergence of collective defiance by labor: 1) the articulation of a moral economy among autoworkers where they came to believe that actions by GM constituted a violation of the traditional effort bargain between workers and management; 2) the organizational flexibility of the UAW in adapting traditional tactics to take advantage of pre-existing social structures 3) the organizational learning that led to the identification of the sit-down strike as a strategy that leveraged the positional power afforded workers by the structure of auto production 4) the incorporation of a class-conscious rank-and-file into the on-the-ground decision making of the UAW.

This study examines the major factors that predict states’ repressive policies, focusing on the r... more This study examines the major factors that predict states’ repressive policies, focusing on the relationship between oppositional terror attacks and state repression of core human rights. We rely on a theoretical framework that brings together actor-oriented explanations and socio-cultural approaches. While the former emphasize purposive rational action, international pressures, and domestic threats, the latter focus on the power of ideas and on processes of policy diffusion and cultural norms. Relying on a longitudinal cross-national analysis of panel data for the years 1981–2005, we find substantial evidence for the effects of both actor-oriented measurements and socio-cultural ones. These findings join a growing body of research that emphasizes the importance of the institutional and cultural determinants of states’ counterterrorist policies.

This symposium puts together five commentaries on The Specter of Capital from diverse disciplinar... more This symposium puts together five commentaries on The Specter of Capital from diverse disciplinary perspectives, together with chibber's response.

During the two decades before World War II, as this article demonstrates, the relationship betwee... more During the two decades before World War II, as this article demonstrates, the relationship between the Big Three American automakers and their parts suppliers was remarkably similar to the celebrated cooperation of Japanese auto assemblers and their trading partners after 1980. Unlike the arms-length multi-sourcing that characterized American firms after 1960, the prewar Detroit production culture featured collaborative development, cost sharing, and long-term innovative relationships. This system nurtured the rise of Chrysler, which not only grew from a standing start in 1920 to con vert the General Motors-Ford duopoly into the "Big Three" by 1930, but also established itself as the industry's leader in innovation and profitability

This study examines the relationship between work and depressive symptomatology for extremely des... more This study examines the relationship between work and depressive symptomatology for extremely destitute single mothers -- mothers who have experienced an episode of homelessness. Using longitudinal data collected from 294 respondents who became homeless in 1992 and were followed for approximately two years, we find that the history of full-time work is the best predictor for whether a woman will find full-time employment in the aftermath of an episode of homelessness. Even an extensive history of part-time or informal work was not predictive of finding employment after leaving a homeless shelter. A woman's level of depressive symptomatology at the onset or homelessness predicted her strategy for dealing with the shelter biureaucracy. Women with full-time work histories who experienced high levels of depressive moods at the onset of a shelter episode were likely to leave the shelter quickly. Those with lower levels of depressive symptomatology stayed, and were more likely than others to complete an education or job training program. Both types of women with full-time work histories were more likely than others to find full-time employment after a homeless episode. These findings suggest that policy makers must focus on providing full-time, and not part-time, work for impoverished mothers and take depressive symptomatology into account when offering assistance to homeless mothers.

This paper examines an understudied problem in homeless literature: the factors that affect a fam... more This paper examines an understudied problem in homeless literature: the factors that affect a family's ability to transition from a shelter to stable housing. Studies of homeless family trajectories are few and focus on the effects of individuals' biographical characteristics, with little examination of the contexts or institutional confines in which family homelessness occurs. Most studies also assume that parents are passive service recipients who readily accept, and who do not shape, the institutional policies they encounter. This study shows that homeless parents actively navigate poverty and seek a better place to raise their families. We use qualitative data to generate a series of propositions about the dynamics of homeless trajectories – including parent logics and the ways they dynamically engage with policy amenities. We also consider the policy responses that may happen midstream in the housing search. We then test these propositions with quantitative data on trajectories. The results confirm that links to institutions play an important role in the process of exiting homelessness, but disconfirm the proposition that institutions do so by simply enhancing the biographical characteristics of their clients. Instead, these programs create spaces for fruitful relationships between homeless parents and resourceful social service workers who facilitate their entrée into the housing search process in an informal, and often unanticipated, manner. We use our results to inform an unrealized policy shift to Housing First policy – the idea that homeless parents should be housed first, and then be provided with relevant services to help them secure housing, and not conversely.

Social Problems , Jun 1966

Chronic leave patients gain release from mental hospitals, but are recommitted without establishi... more Chronic leave patients gain release from mental hospitals, but are recommitted without establishing stable lives in the community. In 1956 in California 27% of patients released returned to the hospital three of more time during subsequent years. Analysis of the dynamics of this pattern reveals that chronic leave patients had embraced the role of dependent while in the hospital, while their families ha redefined them from "close-others" meriting caretaking to "distant-others" who had less claim on family support, and that the social welfare support system had neither the resource nor personnel needed to supply necessary support services.

Social Services Review , Dec 1996

From a sample of 340 Homeless families, we find that services designed to serve their needs produ... more From a sample of 340 Homeless families, we find that services designed to serve their needs produce tow, often conflicting, scrambles for resources. Social service providers parlayed public sentiment toward homelessness into service-intensive programs. The homeless took advantage of such programs, not necessarily for the services,but as a way to more quickly get subsidized housing. the sresult was an unintentional conflict of interest and failed policy. The homeless remained in the program longer than assumed becauseo f a shortage of subsidized housing and because the regimented services ultaimtely undermined what gragile social networks they had previously devised to survive.

Interesting article by Kate Manne looking at the role of gender prejudice (among white women!!) i... more Interesting article by Kate Manne looking at the role of gender prejudice (among white women!!) in leading white women to vote for Trump. She has a particularly vivid and insightful discussion of all the rumor-mongering about Clinton's health as dog whistle sexism that had real bite in terms of public opinion and among white women in particular.

I think that if we want to understand the incredible violence of the United States, institutional... more I think that if we want to understand the incredible violence of the United States, institutionally and individually, the indelible line of causation goes back to racism, and the institutionalization of violence as the primary vehicle for capturing land from the First Nations, and then utilizing the same apparatus of violence to kidnap the labor and quiescence from the slaves. At each juncture of U.S. history, that “official” capacity for violence (in the form of armies, police forces, and organized terrorist organizations) has been leveled first at Native Americans and African-Americans, and then against other subaltern targets. At every juncture, non-institutionalized violence – militias, terrorist vigilantes, interpersonal violence including intimate partner violence, as well as violent criminality – has been tolerated or even encouraged as an adjunct and justification for systemic violence. And always, the overarching rationale has been the classic racist (and gender) blaming the victim canard, that the targets “do not understand anything but violence.” (That has been applied as relentlessly to women (who “need to be put in their place”) as people of color (who usually need to be “civilized,” because of their “barbarous” natures.)

How can we avoid the collapse of the anti-Trump movement once he departs.

Why Does American Industry Love Medicare for all in Canada, but Oppose It in the USA? Answer: be... more Why Does American Industry Love Medicare for all in Canada, but Oppose It in the USA? Answer: because they save 10,000 dollars per employee by moving production to Canada.

Check out this incredible news report (below): that Mr. Khizr Khan – the now famous Gold Star Fat... more Check out this incredible news report (below): that Mr. Khizr Khan – the now famous Gold Star Father who offered Donald Trump his copy of the U.S. Constitution – has been told that he cannot travel to Canada because his “traveling privileges” were “under review.” This incident has huge significance because it is emblematic of the underlying state terrorist strategy that is emerging from the Trump administration.

We have been trying to track the ways in which the administration of Donald Trump will be constra... more We have been trying to track the ways in which the administration of Donald Trump will be constrained to serve the interest of the capitalist class – despite his roguish impulses to go " off the plantation " and implement policies that would not serve corporate interests. So this NY Times article today (Thursday February 16), gives some real substance to the capital strike that is shaping up as a way of molding Trump administration (and the GOP congress) efforts to " repeal and replace " Obamacare. We have been hearing over the past few days that Trump has stopped trumpeting the impending repeal of Obamacare (now postponed past 2017 and maybe not till 2018), but there has been little detail about what is impelling these delays and what the new mantra " preserve parts " might be referring to. The Times article, originally called " Repair then Repeal " (later changed to the antiseptic " White House Proposes New Rules to Steady Insurance Markets Under Health Law ")gives some details about how things are going and why.

So recently Joachim Savelsberg sent an appeal (see below) to the Human Rights Section of the ASA,... more So recently Joachim Savelsberg sent an appeal (see below) to the Human Rights Section of the ASA, asking for ideas (and I guess proposals) for research and scholarship designed to respond to the Trump Administrations various incursions on Human Rights. At first, I was somewhat chary of the appeal, but I have warmed to it over time, because I sense and believe that there is a large reservoir of academic activism created or revived by the Trump election, and by the recent set of assaults on various targeted and vulnerable populations.

I think this is a good time to be exhorting our colleagues to activate their public sociology persona, and do some work that could be useful in the struggles against Trumpism (and U.S. government racism, bigotry, imperialism) more generally.

So I took a couple of hours and wrote a commentary making a couple of suggestions about what kind of work people could do that would be useful to the resistance . I have pasted my effort in below so you can get a sense of what I think might be useful.

My ask is this: read thru Joachim’s appeal and take a look at my response. If you have so comparable ideas for scholarship people can engage in that would be useful, then write a short comment (they really want less than 500 words) laying out the idea and send it to the three principals (here are their addresses, Joachim Savelsberg <savel001@umn.edu>; a.fukushima@utah.edu; Brehm.84@osu.edu). Their deadline in Wednesday the 15th, but a couple of days late might be okay. If we can get up to a list of ten or so ideas, I think we might really hit some folks out that in their wheelhouse and generate some really useful research/commentary/analysis. Anyway I think it is worth the effort.

Trump's supporters are not worried about a big business government as long as it attacks " undese... more Trump's supporters are not worried about a big business government as long as it attacks " undeserving " minorities

New York Times reporter Jack Healy filed an interesting report today (January 28, below), based on two dozen interviews with strong Trump supporters. He found that– despite with some criticisms of him for " exaggeration " and not learning when to " shut up " — they feel he has shown that he is already " following through " on his campaign promises. And when they list his " follow through " we can see that it is the enacted bigotry that they are excited about. And it's worse; they are not just excited about seeing the " undeserving " minorities smashed; they believe that they will personally benefit from the enhanced oppression of Blacks and Latinos, immigrants, Muslims, environmentalists, and gender minorities. This dogma – that they benefit from discrimination and human rights violations – is the most pernicious form of bigotry.

Peter Evans' commentary (below and here) is worth reading because we need to unpack and debunk th... more Peter Evans' commentary (below and here) is worth reading because we need to unpack and debunk the reverence for big corporations as the necessary and sufficient engine of economic development – and therefore the necessary and sufficient source of prosperity for all. From this dogma derives the singleminded policies pursued by every presidential administraton (including Obama and now Trump) to attract the investment of the transnational capitalists into the domestic economy. Evans debunks this mythology in one sentence with this comment: " Confronting corporate ideological and political power means correcting more trade myths: the myth that capital's rents are the result of the natural operation of markets; the myth that increasing profits and greater efficiency go hand in hand; the myth that capitalists are job creators, not job destroyers; the myth that pro-capitalist economics are the backbone of democratic politics; and so on " These myths justify government policies that deliver large amounts of unfettered and unregulated investment capital into the coffers of large corporations, and expect them to fulfill their (mythical) role as job creators. Not. The world needs to understand instead that capitalists are – in this era and in this setting – " job destroyers " not " job creators. " This is demonstrated every time a new policy is implemented. For example, the impact of Obama's $80 billion " rescue " of the auto industry brought GM and Chrysler out of bankruptcy while they shrunk their workforce by tens of thousands, and reduced the remuneration of the remaining workers to poverty producing levels. The mythology that big capital are job creators derives from a superficial understanding of the 1950s, when jobs in the industrial core of the economy supported a middle class life style. But the myth never mentions that those same jobs were poverty producing in the 1920s. Those blue collar middle class jobs were not created by the capitalists; they were created by the industrial unions organized in the 1930s, whose members risked their lives and their livelihoods to overcome the violent and sustained resistance of those " job creating " capitalists, forcing them to concede middle class wage and benefit packages.. The biggest point in this essay is that we should lose our dazed reverence for the once-well-paid domestic manufacturing jobs that are now poverty producing jobs in the global south, and withdraw our support from pie-in-the-sky proposals that seek to incentivize global capital to return these jobs to their long-gone middle class domestic status. Instead, we should focus our attention on the jobs – like medical technicians and service jobs – actually being created and retained in this country. But these jobs are currently poverty producing, so we need to engage in another era of job creation, forcing the capitalists to replicate the concessions granted in the 1930s. Don't mourn departed middle class jobs; organize.

The discussion about the white working class support for Trump must take into account the awful t... more The discussion about the white working class support for Trump must take into account the awful truth that it rests solidly on racial and gender bigotry. As Peter Evans indicates in his In Critical Solidarity commentary, the example of the Culinary Workers of America in Nevada shines a light on a successful strategy for rallying the white working class to progressive policies. The Culinary unionization and electoral campaign demonstrates that white workers can and will support struggles of militant minority and women workers who raise anti-discrimination demands demands that serve the entire working class.

Greg Palast might be wrong about Clinton winning Michigan and Wisconsin. But the larger question... more Greg Palast might be wrong about Clinton winning Michigan and Wisconsin. But the larger questions about the viability of elections as a vehicle for progressive change remain....

I often think that Greg Palast overanalyzes the evidence, resulting in alarmist exaggeration. B... more I often think that Greg Palast overanalyzes the evidence, resulting in alarmist exaggeration. But this time, I think he has nailed it. This article finished the job of showing that Clinton won Michigan and Wisconsin. And that the Republicans set aside tens of thousands of Democratic votes because the decrepit – famously faulty – voting machines could not decipher the votes. And then they refused to hand count them, and got the courts to stop the hand recounts (and instead, fed the same ballots back through the same faulty machines).

And, by implication, the same methods (and a bunch of others) applied to Pennsylvania and North Carolina. So, in fact, Clinton won by with quite a few electoral votes to spare, but the GOP brought Trump home with voter suppression measures.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38767-the-republican-sabotage-of-the-vote-recounts-in-michigan-and-wisconsin

If You are inclined to think the election was stolen161127 If you are inclinefd to think that the... more If You are inclined to think the election was stolen161127 If you are inclinefd to think that the election was stolen, then here is the most tangible claim about how it was done (there are other plausible arguments also, but this one is the most solid in my view). This is Greg Palast's (already documented before the election) claim that the GOP has been illegally eliminating voters from the registration lists whenever they could find two people with the same first and last name. According to Palast, 1.1 million people came to the polls and were turned away (or had their votes sequestered) because of this tactic; and that the vast majority were Democrats. And that these exclusions were concentrated in….key swing states that Trump won by a handful of votes. (He does not say which ones, but it is clear that Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are the major candidates, where: (1) trump won by suspiciously tiny margins (less than 100,000). And.—to add to the suspicion, in these three states, Clinton won in the exit polls, which is a sure sign of hanky panky – it almost certainly means that a large number of the folks who thought they had voted (and came out and told the exit pollsters they voted for Clinton) have actually had their votes sequestered and then nullified. So get your paranoia up…it looks like it really might be another stolen election.

Like everyone else I know, I have been obsessed with Trump’s victory, not least because I found i... more Like everyone else I know, I have been obsessed with Trump’s victory, not least because I found it so surprising. I believe the opinion polls, and I still think they were right as far as they went. But what they failed to see was that this time the “turnout” differential (always a wildcard in election polling) was far beyond any recent experience. In my view, Trump’s victory in key states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania came because his supporters turned out in much larger numbers than Clinton’s – in fact with a differential never before see in U.S. politics (these speculations will, I think, be validated when they finally get round to doing the detailed analyses). And why? I grant all the stuff about anti-establishmentarianism and economic insecurity, but we’ve had plenty of that before – including the (then awesomely high) turnout differential that elected Obama. This one is beyond that and it has to do with the singular aspect of Trump’s campaign – his unabashed bigotry. So, if you can stand reading 3000 of my words and also a quite wonderful Guardian article by Paul Mason that I am riffing off of, you can see my take and what animated Trump’s appeal to so many (almost all white) voters. And how the racism and the other bigotries he invoked were constructed over the years and cashed in by Trump.

quaderni di sociologia, 2020

A special issue of Quaderni di Sociologia featuring a symposium on the racist history of sociolog... more A special issue of Quaderni di Sociologia featuring a symposium on the racist history of sociology. Features are an analytic preface by Paolo Parra Saiani; Aldon Moriss, "The Sociology of WEB Du Bois as a WEapon of Racial Equality: Pioneer Scientific Sicial research at Historyically Black Colleges and Universitiesl,"; Walter R. Allen, Audrey Devots, and Cymone Mack, "Hidden in Plain Sight: Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America,"; Krista Johson,, "Pioneering the Social Sciences at the Periphery,"; Michael Schwartz, "The Great Migration in Myth and Reality"; and Paolo Parra Saiani,"Towards a New Canon: Rewriting the history (and the future of sociology:

Quaderni di Sociologia, 2021

Beginning with the expulsion of W.E.B. Du Bois from the University of Pennsylvania in 1898, the w... more Beginning with the expulsion of W.E.B. Du Bois from the University of Pennsylvania in 1898, the white sociological establishment implemented strict racial segregation in the discipline; excluding Black scholars from employment in any college or university attended by white students, depriving them of access to the research and teaching resources available at elite institutions, and refusing to accept their work in the central publication outlets. Recent research has documented how the academics housed in historically Black universities and colleges (HBCUs) overcame the constraints created by this replication of Jim Crow segregation within sociology This essay extends that work by discussing the ways in which the Jim Crow structure was enacted and sustained over many decades, how this exclusionary project limited and distorted the research, analysis, and theory developed within the white universities; and how the work of Black sociologists – ignored and dismissed by the white establishment – constitutes a precious heritage of important and still valuable scholarship. This contrast between sterile white establishment scholarship and the still-valuable work of HSBCs scholars is documenting by comparing the literature on migration and immigration. This comparison demonstrates that even the most cited works by white immigration scholars offered an inaccurate portrait of both the process and dynamics of immigration; and that distorted portrait of immigration was perpetuated through fifty years of subsequent establishment scholarship; while the work of Black scholars provided indelible on-the-ground evidence and lucid theory that remains valuable in understanding contemporary migration issues.

Behvaior Genetics, 1975

Arthur Jensen claims that four studies of separated identical twins demonstrate the IQ performanc... more Arthur Jensen claims that four studies of separated identical twins demonstrate the IQ performance is inherited. His method of analysis is incorrect. When analyzed properly, the data show no significant inherited component in IQ performance.

Science for the People, 1974

There is no genetic component to IQ performance. We review the historica evidence claiming that ... more There is no genetic component to IQ performance. We review the historica evidence claiming that intelligence (and IQ) is inherited; and demonstrate that it actually documents the absence of ANY heritable component to cognitive performance.

Journal of World-Systems Research , 2017

This review essay is aimed at conveying my conviction that this book can provide real impetus fo... more This review essay is aimed at conveying my conviction that this book can provide real impetus for the decades-old effort to integrate the Du Boisean perspective (at long last) into the sociological canon, where it is sorely needed. Aldon Morris recounts and analyzed the construction of academic apartheid, which excluded anti-racist and social reform scholarship from sociology during the first half of the 20th Century. The story begins even before 1900, when Du Bois’ -- the most important and most widely read US sociologist --was expelled from the community of white – and mainstream – sociological scholars in North America. As Morris shows, this “casting out” of a founding father of modern sociology was quickly institutionalized, engineered at first by the social Darwinist “founding fathers” of the American Sociological Society, and later under the leadership of Robert Park and the University of Chicago sociology department. The exclusion meant that Du Bois (and subsequent generations of African-American scholars) was not welcome on white campuses, professional meetings, and funding agencies, and that his scholarship (and that of other anti-racist Black and white scholars) was excised from mainstream books, journals, and classrooms.
The world -- and particularly sociologists -- must to digest Morris' careful analysis of how this nexus of exclusionary practices and institutions was constructed, so that we can finish the job of deconstructing this institutional racism, and position sociology as the activist science that addresses the social ills of the 21st century.

Arthur Jensen's claim that the twins from the four studies of separated identical twins come from... more Arthur Jensen's claim that the twins from the four studies of separated identical twins come from the same populations shown to be wrong. A correct analysis disconfirms Jensen's claim that these data support claims that IQ is inherited.

This is the full symposium from the British Journal of Sociology, including Aldon Morris' 2016 Br... more This is the full symposium from the British Journal of Sociology, including Aldon Morris' 2016 British Journal of Sociology Annual Theory lecture, entitled "W. E. B. Du Bois at the Center," and responses from five scholars.

This article seeks to demonstrate that the exclusion of WEB Du Bois – as well as other African-Am... more This article seeks to demonstrate that the exclusion of WEB Du Bois – as well as other African-American scholars, and their activist white allies – from the core institutions of American sociology led to the glaring theoretical, analytic, and evidential deficiencies that plagued the “fairy tale” portrayals of society forwarded by institutional sociology during at least the first half of the 20th century. In establishing this connection, I hope to demonstrate that the ongoing project -- recently animated by the publication of Aldon Morris' The Scholar Denied -- of re-integrating Du Boisean thought into the sociological mainstream will enable the discipline to play its part in “unleashing social truths,” “empowering change” and “liberating humanity.”

Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2017

The publication of Aldon Morris' The Scholar Denied has triggered a comprehensive discourse aroun... more The publication of Aldon Morris' The Scholar Denied has triggered a comprehensive discourse around reintegrating Du Boisean scholarship into sociology (after 70 or more years of rigorous institutional exclusion and another 40 years of episodic campaigns to ameliorate it). This new round of discourse (and institutional initiatives) holds the promise of finally making Du Bois and his scholarly perspective an integral part of socological scholarship and course curricula. Among the most interesting (and I think constructive) symposia generated by The Scholar Denied has recently been published by Ethnic and Race Studies, My contribution to the symposium calls out the activist element in Du Bois scholarship (and Morris’ book), arguing that what we need is to embrace Du Bois’ conception of sociology as an applied science in order to make sociology relevant to the 21st century issues facing human society. You can find the full symposium here: https://www.academia.edu/31721148/Symposium_on_WEB_Du_Bois_exclusion_from_Sociology_A_discussion_of_Aldon_Morris_The_Scholar_Denied

The publication of Aldon Morris' The Scholar Denied has triggered a comprehensive discourse aroun... more The publication of Aldon Morris' The Scholar Denied has triggered a comprehensive discourse around reintegrating Du Boisean scholarship into sociology (after 70 or more years of rigorous institutional exclusion and another 40 years of episodic campaigns to ameliorate it). This new round of discourse (and institutional initiatives) holds the promise of finally making Du Bois and his scholarly perspective an integral part of socological scholarship and course curricula. Among the most interesting (and I think constructive) symposia generated by The Scholar Denied has recently been published by Ethnic and Race Studies, My contribution to the symposium calls out the activist element in Du Bois scholarship (and Morris’ book), arguingthat what we need is to embrace Du Bois’ conception of sociology as an applied science in order to make sociology relevant to the 21st century issues facing human society. The text includes all the contributions, including an interesting response by Morris to the original four. You can find mine on page 92, just before Winant's excellent essay and Morris' rejoinder

Science for the People, 1978

Intelligence -- as measured by IQ performance or any other metric -- does not exist; it is purely... more Intelligence -- as measured by IQ performance or any other metric -- does not exist; it is purely a social construct. Using the history of IQ testing and educational tracking we demonstrate that "intelligence" is not an valid description of human behavior.

The evidence used to support high heritability of IQ performance, if properly analyzed, yields es... more The evidence used to support high heritability of IQ performance, if properly analyzed, yields estimates consistent with zero heritability.

Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 2015

Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 2014

Studies of the impact of social movements on government policy usually assume that the most effec... more Studies of the impact of social movements on government policy usually assume that the most effective strategy to win a reform is to directly pressure the elected politicians responsible for its legislation and implementation. We highlight an alternative, less intuitive way in which movements can exert political influence: by targeting the corporate and institutional adversaries of their proposed reforms. Such targeting can undermine their adversaries' ability or commitment to oppose the changes, thus relaxing the contrary pressure applied to politicians and reducing the resistance within government to progressive reform. We support this proposition by highlighting five instances in which mass pressure applied to institutional adversaries contributed to government policy change. Our analysis demonstrates that mass protest targeting large institutions whose leaders are not elected can be an effective and even primary strategy for compelling elected officials to enact and implemen...

Politics & Society, 2018

The importance of overt levers of business political influence, notably campaign donations and lo... more The importance of overt levers of business political influence, notably campaign donations and lobbying, has been overemphasized. Using executive branch policymaking during the Obama administration as a case study, this article shows that those paths of influence are often not the most important. It places special emphasis on the structural power that large banks and corporations wield by virtue of their control over the flow of capital and the consequent effects on employment levels, credit availability, prices, and tax collection. At times, business disinvestment, combined with demands for government policy reforms, constitutes a conscious “capital strike,” which has the potential to shape political appointments, legislation, and policy implementation. At other times, the threat of disinvestment, the hint of a drop in “business confidence,” or rhetoric about job creation is sufficient to achieve those objectives. The present analysis has important implications for our understandin...

The British journal of sociology, 2017

Critical Historical Studies, 2015

ABSTRACT

The Essential Ellen Willis, 2014

International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 2014

Sociological Methodology, 1986

Social Problems, 1981

... This paper concentrates on the structure of intercorporate relations and uses interlockingdir... more ... This paper concentrates on the structure of intercorporate relations and uses interlockingdirectorates to analyze patterns of interaction which might reflect unifying forces within ... Pro-fessional managers in the trust departments of major banks make decisions for various clients, ...

Journal of Classical Sociology, 2012

The desire to overcome the alienated labor of capitalism manifests itself in the daily actions of... more The desire to overcome the alienated labor of capitalism manifests itself in the daily actions of people everywhere. John Holloway argues that social movements must build upon this liberatory impulse, challenging not only the rate of exploitation but also workers’ loss of control over the process of production and allocation (and, by implication, the loss of control in other arenas of life). Revolutionary change, in turn, will result from these movements creating thousands of ‘cracks’ in the capitalist system by asserting alternative ways of living. Holloway’s argument for prefigurative movements is ambiguous on several points, however: the role of political organizations, the role of alternative institutions, and the appropriate approach of social movements to the state. We propose some friendly amendments, placing greater emphasis on the need for strong political organizations and counter-institutions, but also for selective engagement with dominant institutions. A revolutionary s...

Social Problems, 1976

This paper review the two most prominent methodological procedures used in the study of elites: s... more This paper review the two most prominent methodological procedures used in the study of elites: social background investigation and decision-making analyses. Neither of these methodologies when used alone can resolve the power Structure debate.. We urge researchers to pay close attention to theory construction, to look at competitive theories in their full expression, and to mount a series of empirical tests aimed at contrasting aspects of the competitive theories. The valid hteory will be that which remains unmodified through a series of tests, while the disconfirmed theory will require repeated revision when unable to explin new data. .

Social Science History, 1983

Many recent studies of interlocking directorates have paid special attention to the possible exis... more Many recent studies of interlocking directorates have paid special attention to the possible existence of interest groups or cliques within the corporate world (Allen, 1978; Dooley, 1969; Mariolis, 1977; Mintz and Schwartz, 1981a; Mizruchi, 1982b). The search for economic groupings ...

This paper examines the structure of intercorporate unity in the United States through an analysi... more This paper examines the structure of intercorporate unity in the United States through an analysis of interlocking directorates. Our findings suggest that the major organizing institutions within the corporate world are the largest New York commercial banks, themselves united by a small number of prominent insurance companies.These institutions lend an order to corporate affairs and maintain a loose unity among firms. Although sources of conflict remain, patterns of director interlocks emphasize the capacity for cohesion supplied by the financial sector and suggest that mechanisms for conflict resolution reside within U.S. business.

At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, automobile manufacturing was the largest, most profitable ind... more At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, automobile manufacturing was the largest, most profitable industry in the United States and residents of industry hubs like Detroit and Flint, Michigan had some of the highest incomes in the country. Over the last half-century, the industry has declined, and American automakers now struggle to stay profitable. How did the most prosperous industry in the richest country in the world crash and burn? In Wrecked, sociologists Joshua Murray and Michael Schwartz offer an unprecedented historical-sociological analysis of the downfall of the auto industry. Through an in-depth examination of labor relations and the production processes of automakers in the U.S. and Japan both before and after World War II, they demonstrate that the decline of the American manufacturers was the unintended consequence of their attempts to weaken the bargaining power of their unions.

Today Japanese and many European automakers produce higher quality cars at lower cost than their American counterparts thanks to a flexible form of production characterized by long-term sole suppliers, assembly and supply plants located near each other, and just-in-time delivery of raw materials. While this style of production was, in fact, pioneered in the U.S. prior to World War II, in the years after the war, American automakers deliberately dismantled this system. As Murray and Schwartz show, flexible production accelerated innovation but also facilitated workers’ efforts to unionize plants and carry out work stoppages. To reduce the efficacy of strikes and combat the labor militancy that flourished between the Depression and the postwar period, the industry dispersed production across the nation, began maintaining large stockpiles of inventory, and eliminated single sourcing. While this restructuring of production did ultimately reduce workers’ leverage, it also decreased production efficiency and innovation. The U.S. auto industry has struggled ever since to compete with foreign automakers, and formerly thriving motor cities have suffered the consequences of mass deindustrialization.

Murray and Schwartz argue that new business models that reinstate flexible production and prioritize innovation rather than cheap labor could stem the outsourcing of jobs and help revive the auto industry. By clarifying the historical relationships between production processes, organized labor, and industrial innovation, Wrecked provides new insights into the inner workings and decline of the U.S. auto industry.