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The nineteenth century witnessed the rise of both the large corporation and the modern bureaucratic state. By the end of the century, railroad corporations in the United States had attained the highest degree of organizational development that any country had yet experienced in order to operate on a transcontinental basis (Chandler 1977). Modern states, extending their reach into daily life, broke down both political and social barriers to their power. A hodgepodge of principalities and kingdoms that had controlled the territory of what is now Germany was swept away and replaced by structures that inspired Max Weber. Longer established states such as France found capacities to turn “peasants into Frenchmen,” casting aside local traditions and even languages in the process (Weber 1976).

As these trends unfolded, people have struggled to assess the connections between them and their relative importance. This collection asks four key questions about the relationship between business and the state. First, what is the balance of power between these two sets of actors? Is the state dominated by business or is business, as the pluralists contended, merely one among many interests that seek to influence and shape public policy? Second, what trends are apparent in the balance of power between business and government? Have factors such as greater mobilization by business or, in particular, the process of globalization resulted in a shift of power towards business and away from government? Third, how effective or efficient is the relationship between business and