Abstract
This article seeks to contribute to the thinking of forms of corporateness, sociality and authority in the context of, but also beyond, neoliberalism, the neoliberal state and neoliberal accounts of the corporation. It considers neoliberalism in relation to the theological genealogies of modernity, politics and economy, and the way in which neoliberalism itself functions as a secular religion—one which intensifies liberal individualism and involves a blind faith in the market redefining all social interactions in terms of contract. I turn to the theological genealogies of sovereignty and economy, and of the corporation, as a way of grounding a radical consideration of collectivity and sociality. For, while the rise of neoliberalism is associated with the growth of multi-national or trans-national corporations, the privatisation of state assets and the corporatisation of public institutions, each of these involve not a diminishing of the state or the project of state sovereignty but rather its reformulation, reaffirmation and intensification. The corporation, despite being redefined as the interaction of fundamentally self-willing and contracting individuals operating in the market, is still fundamentally intertwined with state sovereignty. Attempts to address or respond to corporate power need to go beyond calls for greater regulation of corporations, increased corporate social responsibility or even the desire to eliminate corporate personhood. Rather, what is required is a greater emphasis on the notion of corporateness that undergirds the theological genealogy of the corporation—for if neoliberalism functions as a religion then part of the solution may be a theological one.
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Notes
They go on to note that ‘if not subject to violent repression, nonbelievers are typically dismissed as apostate defenders of outmoded institutions and suspiciously collectivist social rights’ (Peck and Tickell 2002, p. 381). Joshua Barkan, as we will see in the next section, points out that this is a genealogical connection and not simply an analogical one (Barkan 2013, p. 10).
See also Agamben’s discussion of secularisation as a ‘signature’: (Agamben 2011, pp. 3–4).
He argues: ‘capitalism is a religion founded entirely on faith; it is a religion whose adepts live sola fide….capitalism, from the perspective of faith, has no object: it believes in the pure fact of believing, in pure credit, that is, in money. Capitalism is thus a religion in which faith—credit—is substituted for God….since the pure form of credit is money, it is a religion in which God is money’ (Agamben 2016, p. 18). Capitalism has thus taken to the extreme the point Christ makes in relation to the worship of ‘mammon’. Matthew 6: 24.
Dotam Leshem criticises Agamben’s approach, however, as ignoring the significant shifts in the relation between Trinitarian theology and the history of salvation in the period between the Councils of Nicea (325) and Chalcedon (451) which introduced a distinction between theology and economy. Leshem argues that this means that Agamben’s focus on ‘providential’ administration thus overlooks the principle of growth as essential for the understanding of economy. The implications is that the ‘Christian’ theological origins of modern providential accounts of economy are misidentified—they are ‘heterodox’ rather than ‘orthodox’ theological accounts (Leshem 2015, 2016, pp. 6–8; Agamben 2011, pp. 279–286; Milbank 2017; for an alternative account of the providence of political economy see Milbank 2006, p. ch 2).
Whilst Radin is not alone in pointing out these aspects (see, for example Dewey 1926; Hohfeld 1909), his work is significant in the context of this article and its focus on theological genealogies, particularly because of Radin’s association with Ernst Kantorowicz. Kantorowicz describes the origins of his The King’s Two Bodies as having arisen out of a conversation with Radin about the incorporated nature of ‘The Order of St Benedict, Inc’ (see discussion in Landauer 1994, pp. 1–4).
The thinking of corporations as political or constitutional entities is, in itself, not new (see, for example Bottomley 2007; see also the discussion in Tomasic 2014). What is significant in Barkan’s approach is the focus on the corporation not just as a political entity but one that reproduces the doubling of the sovereign ban.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the participants in the ‘Forms of authority beyond the neoliberal state: Sovereignty, politics and aesthetics’ symposium (Law Futures Centre and Griffith Law School, Griffith University) for their comments and challenging engagements. I also thank the organisers of that symposium and editors of this special issue, Chris Butler and Karen Crawley, for their invitation to be part of the project and for their many helpful comments and critical suggestions which improved this piece as it materialised. Some early versions of the ideas in this paper were presented as ‘Turning corporate law inside out: A political theology of the corporate body’ at both the 2015 Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference at Flinders University and at a Seminar in the Law Futures Centre Seminar Series at Griffith University in March 2016. Many thanks to the attendees at the conference and seminar (in particular, Shaun McVeigh, Olivia Barr, Rob McQueen, Chris Dent and Lee Godden) for their exceptionally helpful input and suggestions on what were some under-developed thoughts. Thanks to Renae Barrett and Samuel Wheeler for their early research assistance (supported by a Socio-Legal Research Centre, Griffith University Research Support Scheme Grant) and the anonymous reviewer for their very generous comments. I also acknowledge and thank Edwin Bikundo for numerous interventions and critical engagements on these topics over several years—our discussions have, as always, dramatically improved and refined my thinking. All errors remain my own.
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Peters, T.D. Corporations, Sovereignty and the Religion of Neoliberalism. Law Critique 29, 271–292 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-018-9231-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-018-9231-1