Abolishing corporate crime : the Trump chapter
Date
2019-04-02
Authors
Snider, Laureen
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Abstract
Corporate Crime, unlike corporate harm, is inherently political. It must be “named”, “shamed”, “blamed”, and most importantly counted, measured, reported and disciplined by state institutions. By the same token, it can be eliminated by political fiat. From the 1980s on, as governments bought into neoliberal doctrines, regulatory agencies in most capitalist democracies have been variously downsized, privatized, and starved of resources and staff. With the election of Donald Trump, however, this agenda in the United States has exploded. Federal laws protecting workers, the environment and the economy are all threatened – not just with downsizing but with outright elimination. This lecture documents the Trump agenda as it has been practiced thus far in these three areas, then attempts to understand, through critical theory, how and why this has happened.