Rethinking Capitalism : Community and Responsibility in Business

Given the world's current financial climate, Rethinking Capitalism couldn't come at a better time. With the government bailing out and taking over banks and other financial institutions, many are wondering what kind of capitalism we will end up with. Every day questions arise about whether the government should more actively regulate these institutions, and many are angered by the compensation and severance packages provided to the managers of failed institutions. What are our alternatives?

Rethinking Capitalism questions the assumptions of a capitalist society, offers a new way to understand capitalism, and prescribes a different role for management. Using classical American pragmatism, Professor Emeritus of Business Ethics Rogene Buchholz analyzes the history of capitalistic thought and proposes that we recast management as a profession akin to law or medicine--with a defined code of ethics, oriented toward the public good as well as profit and maximization of shareholder wealth. Buchholz challenges the way we understand capitalism with its emphasis on the creation of economic wealth and growth to the exclusion of all else, and champion a new approach to the creation of a more sustainable and just functioning of the market system, corporate organization, and governance.

Rogene Buchholz is Emeritus Legendre-Soule Chair in Business Ethics at the Loyola University New Orleans, and is author of more than a dozen books including Rethinking Business Ethics: A Pragmatic Approach (with Sandra B. Rosenthal, 2000).