The Asymmetric Society

Book excerpt: Over the past hundred years changes in the structure of modern society have created an increasing asymmetry between individual persons and the corporate bodies with which they daily interact. The rise of the e new 'corporate actors"-government, business corporations, trade unions, associations-and our coexistence with them as natural persons pose problems never before confronted. James Coleman explores the implication of our modern asymmetric society for decision involving rights and risks, child rearing and the flow of information. He examines how corporate actors come to gain their right from natural persons; how they come to have life breathed into them; how their actions have serious economic and physical consequences for natural persons; and how reallocation of rights can be used to restrain their action . Coleman concludes hi provocative essays with a look into the future. The modern corporate actor allow natural per on freedom unknown to our forefather but has also placed many of us in impersonal, often inhuman bureaucracies. Is the corporate actor the la t such social invention? Or i there the possibility of a more attractive future, following still further social and corporate evolution?