Beyond the Nation State: Corporate Governance in Transition

Abstract

This article re-examines the concept of nationally based corporate governance systems in the wake of effects rendered beyond the nation state and beyond narrow legal parameters. These effects include postmodernism, the global change management movement and theories of globalization as they affect the traditional hegemony of state actors. As a result of these forces, there is, arguably, an emerging theory of convergence of national systems of corporate governance. Is such convergence inevitable or, in fact, an overstated and under-examined assumption, because states are proving more resistant in their bid to retain their particularized models of corporate governance?Part One considers contemporary and emerging views of corporate governance. Is the concept of corporate governance a settled one, and what does it involve?Part Two considers three of the key drivers of ‘beyond the nation state’ influence. These include postmodernism which can be viewed as a social or political construct of wide importance or a narrow conceit that has already passed its zenith of influence. Secondly, is the concept of change management, a theory emanating from business and psychology platforms which throws down a fundamental challenge to the veracity of national legal systems. And third, the phenomenon of globalization, which like corporate governance itself, proves a slippery and malleable concept, whose influence is to difficult to locate and agree upon.Part Three examines the case for and against a theory of convergence of national systems That is, is it inevitable in light of the extra-national forces referred to in Part Two, that national systems will converge? Is there in effect one system only, so that convergence is both a natural and inevitable progression as the 21st century unfolds?Part Four concludes by stating the arguments for and against convergence and by pointing to the emerging trends in terms of the interplay between state and extra-state dimensions.