The Great Leveler: Capitalism and Competition in the Court of Law

Brett Christophers shows how laws help capitalism maintain a crucial balance between competition and monopoly. When monopolistic forces dominate, antitrust law discourages the growth of corporations and restores competitiveness. When competition becomes dominant, intellectual property law protects corporate assets and encourages investment.

Table of Contents:
Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents Introduction: Influences, Approaches, and Arguments Part I. Leveling in Theory Chapter 1. Competition under Capitalism The Nature of “Competition” Competition, Profit, and Growth Competition and Monopoly Conclusion Chapter 2. Exchanging Production for Markets Law and Competition in the Regulation School of Political Economy Markets in Marx From Marx to Market Markets and Capitalist “Fixes” Conclusion Chapter 3. Law as Leveler An Exercise in Finding the Golden Mean The Antitrust Dampener The IP Injection Conclusion and Segue to Part II Part II. Leveling in Practice Chapter 4. Designs on Monopoly The First Great Depression IP Unchallenged: The Reemergence of Monopoly Powers in the United Kingdom Intellectual Monopoly in the United States: The Legal Exception Conclusion Chapter 5. The Revival of Competition Turning Marx’s Dialectic on Its Head The Halcyon Days of Competition Law Trading Places: IP Law Shackled Law, Competition, and the Golden Age of Capitalism Conclusion Chapter 6. Remaking Monopoly for the Twenty-First Century The Law’s Volte-Face, Mark 2: The United States since the Mid-1970s The Chicago School Revolution in Political-Economic Context Jumping Scales: U.K. Competition and IP Laws in a Globalized World The Reassertion and Internationalization of Monopoly Powers Conclusion Coda: Back to Balance? Abbreviations Notes Acknowledgments Index

Review :
As a work of political economy, The Great Leveler makes a provocative and compelling case for the law as an essential historical actor. This highly readable book challenges historians of business, economics, and capitalism to consider the pivotal role of competition law and expand their conceptions of what capitalism is and how it has been reproduced over time. -- Benjamin C. Waterhouse Enterprise & Society [A] compelling combination of analysis and historical detail...The Great Leveler is an important contribution to understanding some of the most acute modern policy--and political--questions. -- Diane Coyle The Enlightened Economist The Great Leveler is a brilliant rethinking of a century and a half of U.S. and English economic history. It is a must read for all scholars of political economy. Focusing on the dialectic between monopoly and competition, Christophers uncovers four alternating periods that are characterized either by too much or too little competition. He sees the period from 1975 to the present as one of runaway monopolization, and questions whether national legal systems still have the power and authority to play a critical balancing role. -- Fred Block, University of California, Davis The book does a masterful job of weaving a rich skein of a complex whole (capitalism and its movement through time and space) into an accessible and convincing narrative. -- Susan K. Sell, George Washington University [An] insightful historical work on the economic functions of law...This is a tremendous and important scholarly work. The choice of three periods and two complementary kinds of competition (or monopoly) law is inspired and provides seriously insightful analysis of the contrasting dynamics of competition and monopoly at the level of the corporate form, market price formation, and abuse of market power. -- Bob Jessop Antipode Thoroughly researched and engagingly written...This is a rich and significant monograph, which any economic geographer, and many others beside, should read. -- Eric Sheppard Economic Geography