Billionaire Backlash: The Age of Corporate Scandal and How it Could Save Democracy

The surprising story of how corporate scandals - from Enron to the Facebook privacy scandal - change the way the world works for the better. Pepper Culpepper and Taeku Lee draw on a decade of research on policymaking and public opinion to show us how scandals can ignite a public with few political outlets for their discontent.Scandals don’t simply dominate news cycles: they can provoke us to demand better policy, spurring governments to adopt rules that protect us from massive corporations run amok. Today it is giant companies, not governments, who run the world.They launch rockets into space, control satellite communication and develop era-defining AI technologies.But around the globe, these corporate titans are facing increasing public hostility. Tech giants are seen as promoting misinformation, undermining democracy and violating our privacy.Big banks, reeling since the financial crisis of 2008, continue to be racked with major scandals.Drawing on real-life examples such as the VW s