Capitalism, Corporations and the Social Contract

Samuel F. Mansell is a Lecturer in Management at the University of St Andrews. Samuel's research interests continue to lie in the application of political and moral philosophy to the field of business ethics, with particular reference to the work of Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes and Kant. He is currently researching the roles of distributive justice and charity in the modern corporation.

• Foreword; 1. Introduction; 2. An introduction to stakeholder theory; 3. The philosophy of stakeholder theory; 4. The corporation as a private association in a market economy; 5. The corporation as a sovereign power in a market economy; 6. Shareholder theory and its limitations; 7. Conclusion; References; Index.

'Sam Mansell has produced a fine critical analysis of stakeholder theory. He is both a skeptical and a sympathetic critic, a difficult road to follow, yet the results are a fine example of how to give the best possible interpretation of a position, before one begins to criticize it … Mansell's critique has the potential to make stakeholder theory better and stronger.' R. Edward Freeman, University of Virginia, from the Foreword