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In the context of the financial and economic crisis, corporate governance and regulatory supervision failures, Laura Horn investigates one of the defining questions in social power relations in contemporary capitalism: who controls the modern corporation, and why.

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Introduction Theoretical Framework Global Capitalist Restructuring and Corporate Governance Regulation in the European Political Economy Company Law in the European Union - From Industrial to Shareholder Democracy? Corporate Governance Regulation in the European Union - From Harmonisation to Marketisation The Marketisation of Corporate Control as a Political Project Corporate Governance in Crisis? Conclusion

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´In this impressive and rigorous book, Horn examines the politics, power and paradoxes that are central to the construction and transformation of company law and corporate governance at the European Union level. Horn´s lucid analysis makes an important and timely contribution. She not only denaturalises the regulatory developments linked to corporate governance but also maintains focus on the social implications of marketised corporate governance.´ Susanne Soederberg, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Department of Global Development Studies & Political Studies, Queen´s University, Canada

´This is an important book, not only for those interested in corporate governance issues but also for those concerned with the power of corporations in modern society. It explains how the state actively constructed the framework that supported the rise of shareholder value in the European Union. Given the dominance of the corporate governance field by micro-level econometric studies, the book provides a much-needed historical perspective on one of the most important projects in post-world war II capitalism.´ Sigurt Vitols, Senior Research Fellow WZB and Senior Researcher, ETUI, Brussels

In this superb book, Laura Horn has given us an incisive, carefully researched, and powerfully argued analysis of European corporate governance reform. Linking national and EU regulatory politics within the broader historical context of financial globalization, her integration of comparative and international political economy strips away the rhetoric of efficiency and ´free´ markets to focus on power as the driver and the objective of corporate governance reform. John W. Cioffi, Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside

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LAURA HORN is Associate Professor in the Department of Society and Globalisation at the University of Roskilde. Her publications include Contradictions and Limits of Neoliberal European Governance: From Lisbon to Lisbon (co-edited with Bastiaan van Apeldoorn and Jan Drahokoupil).

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