The History of Corporate Governance

“Corporate governance” first came into vogue in the 1970s in the United States. Within 25 years corporate governance had become the subject of debate worldwide by academics, regulators, executives and investors. This paper traces developments occurring between the mid-1970s and the end of the 1990s, by which point “corporate governance” was well-entrenched as academic and regulatory shorthand. The paper concludes by surveying briefly recent developments and by maintaining that analysis of the inter-relationship between directors, executives and shareholders of publicly traded companies is likely to be conducted through the conceptual prism of corporate governance for the foreseeable future.