Interlocking Directorates and Interest Group Formation

This paper uses data on interlocking directorates to test three theories of corporate organization: managerialism, coalition theory, and the theory of finance capital. Findings suggest that the modern corporation is not an autonomous unit as suggested by managerialism, that firms do not form flexible alliances which pursue mutual interests as implied by coalition theory, and that the interest groups of traditional finance capital theory do not characterize the interlock network of the 1960s. Instead, the system is dominated by a handful of interconnected major New York commercial banks and insurance companies which form the center of an integrated national network.