Does “Too Big Too Fail” Signal the Triumph of Business Power?

This essay explores the concern that in contemporary American Politics, business exercises outsized and historically unprecedented influence. Focusing on the largest sector of our economy, the banking industry, the analysis tracks the systematic, purposeful, and bipartisan deregulation of the financial services industry from the Carter Administration thorough the 2008 financial collapse. The claim of business hegemony is examined from an historical/institutional perspective and placed in the context of political science theory, and the conclusion is that while business, represented in this case by the “too big to fail” banks, enjoys significant organizational and structural advantages, business power remains both variable and contingent rather than fixed and hegemonic.