Book Reviews

• Published date: 01 June 1974
• Date: 01 June 1974
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0003603X7401900228
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

BOOK

REVIEWS

471

Mark

J.

Green, editor, The Monopoly Makers: Ralph Nader's

Study

Group Report on Regulation and Competition, New

York: Grossman Publishers (1973), 345 pp., $8.95.

In

his introduction to this book, Ralph Nader indicates

that

it

"is

the

third

in a series of studies on the political

economy of Corporate America

....

"1

In

general the book

details the adverse effects on public welfare of the policies

and decisions of various federal regulatory and executive

agencies. Basically the theme of the book, as the title implies,

is

that

these agencies

are

major contributors to the existence

of monopoly in the United States by virtue of their general

antipathy toward competition. However,

it

is important to

point out

that

the authors of this book do

not

consider the

commissioners and heads of these agencies to be a small band

of wilful people attempting to force

their

policies on recalci-

trant

industries. The thesis, as

further

developed, argues

that

the institutional deficiencies of administered regulation

and the firms

that

are

regulated by or deal with these agen-

cies

are

equally

important

as causative factors, and

that

these three forces

combine-or

in Nader's words, "the institu-

tionalized fusion of corporate desires with public bureauc-

racy"

2_to

produce the undesirable societal effects.

Chapter 1 is entitled, "Uncle Sam, Monopoly Man" and is

by Mark Green, who is Director of the Corporate Account-

ability Research Group. This chapter sets the stage

for

the

following chapters by raising the basic questions

that

are

dis-

cussed in more specific contexts in the subsequent chapters.

He begins by identifying the fundamental issue of the

nature

and extent of the government's role in a mixed economy. He

articulates the basic premise of the entire

book-the

efficacy

and desirability of competition. The

primary

themes of the

government as a creator and promoter of monopoly

and

of

1

THE

MONOPOLY

MAKERS:

RALPH

NADER'S

STUDY

GROUP

REPORT

ON REGULATION AND COMPETITION,

ix

(lVL

Green,

ed.

1973)

(herein-

after

THE

MONOPOLY

MAKERS).

2

THE

MONOPOLY

MAKERS,

supra

note

1,

at

x.

472

THE

ANTITRUST

BULLETIN

the institutional deficiencies of administered regulation

are

announced. Regarding the

latter

he discusses the lack of eco-

nomic rationale

for

much regulation and its deficiencies and

ill

effects in the contexts of

rate

regulation, control of entry,

mergers, efficiency

and

progressiveness. He concludes by say-

mg:

In

sum, one can generalize

that

the government will regu-

late an

industry

if

there is a strong public feeling about

it, if the legislature agrees, if a court does

not

think the

action "unreasonable,

arbitrary

or capricious,"

and

(usu-

ally)

if

the

industry

doesn't mind,"

The following ten chapters develop these general themes

in the following contexts:

Chapter

2, the communications in-

dustry

(television networks, CATV

and

"Pay

T.V.");

Chap-

ter

3, the telephone

industry

(AT&T); Chapter 4, the mari-

time

industry

(the American Merchant

Marine-subsidies,

taxation, cargo preferences,

and

the

FMC-the

conference

system) ;

Chapter

5, surface

transportation

(the ICC) ; Chap-

ter

6,

air

transportation

(the CAB,

lATA

and

ATA);

Chap-

ter

7, electric power (pooling, interconnection, wheeling,

mergers

and

the

FPC,

AEC

and

SEC);

Chapter 8, defense

procurement (contracting techniques, high profits

and

gov-

ernment financed

research);

Chapter 9,

drug

procurement

(Defense Department,

HEW

and

Veteran's Administration

bidding

and

purchasing practices) ;Chapter 10,

patents

(gov-

ernment

patents

and research, the

Patent

Office,

and licensing

restraints)

;

and

Chapter 11, imports (quotas,

tariffs

and ad-

ministrative deterrents).

The book's general themes

are

neither novel

nor

new.

In

fact they

represent

ablending of several traditional notions,

most of which

are

fairly

well articulated in existing

literature

or otherwise accepted. The classic exposition of the theory

that

the government is a

major

contributor to the existence

of monopoly is the 1955 book by

Walter

Adams

and

Horace

3

THE

MONOPOLY

MAKERS,

supra

note 1,

at

11-12.