Talk:Countervailing power
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June 2006
Countervailing is also an important part of antitrust analysis (particuarly in the context of mergers). The lack of importance tag is unjustified.
Countervailence is about much more than Galbraith
There is a broad literature on countervailing power and countervailence theory that is not mentioned in the article. For example, one book that provides a decent overview by Gordon has over 20 references to countervailance in the Index covering Athens, Rome, the Venetian Republic, medieval law, the Dutch Republic, 17th-century England, colonial America, and modern Britain, while mentioning Montesquieu and others.Gordon, Scott (1999). Controlling the State: Constitutionalism from Ancient Athens to Today. Harvard University Press. pp. 5, 226, 223–283, 327-357). ISBN 0674169875. {{cite book}}
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(help) There is much more to be done to expand this article.N2e (talk) 12:45, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
Done — Finally got back to this article after five years away. I've stubbed out a history section, and rewritten the lede, to reflect countervailance political theory more broadly, at least back to Medieval times. Galbraith's particular 20th century theory is thus framed by a history that goes much further back. (although I did not quickly locate a source for the Galbraith claims, as the original source is now a deadlink.) Will need to get back here sometime to stretch it back to some of Aristotle's writings to show deeper roots yet for countervailance in Western thought, and take a look at what has been written in secondary sources about the ideas of Lao Tzu on the matter of dispersed political power. Cheers. N2e (talk) 13:57, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
broke ref
In the 20th century, "Countervailing Power" is a theory of political modification of markets, formulated by American economist John Kenneth Galbraith in his 1952 book American Capitalism. In the classic liberal economy, goods and services are provided and prices set by free bargaining. According to Galbraith, modern economies give massive powers to large business corporations to bias this process, and there arise 'countervailing' powers in the form of trade unions, citizens' organizations and so on, to offset business's excessive advantage
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