College of Business Administration

Seminar in Corporate Governance

Discussion Questions for February 07, 2001

1) What is the purpose of government?

2) From what source does a democratic government derive its power? What of other governmental forms?

3) In a representative democracy, who gets represented? What mechanisms are in place to insure that such representation occurs?

4) In part, the job of government is to insure a fair allocation of scarce resources. What is the parallel within the corporation?

5) Describe the 'government' of the private for-profit corporation. Of the variety of governmental forms, to which is corporate 'government' the closest?

6) Compare and contrast the democratic form of government with the model of corporate 'government' outlined above. Based on this analysis, whose interests are likely to be overlooked with the corporate 'government' model?

7) Corporate 'government' certainly does not exist in a vacuum. What is the appropriate relationship between corporate 'government' and societal government?

8) We will talk more of this next week, but given your answer above, what role should societal 'government' play in regulating corporate 'government'? What of the role corporate 'government' should play in regulating societal 'government'?

9) Which is 'trump' -- societal governement or corporate government? Why?

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