John Micklethwait is US editor of The Economist. He has co-authored three books with Adrian Woolridge, the previous A Future Perfect was a best-selling defence of globalisation. The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea was recently released in America and will be published in the UK in September 2003.

Recent articles

In the age of globalisation, companies are often associated with scandal (Enron), litigation (Microsoft), or overweening power (Wal-Mart). But in the wider historical perspective, the institution is both socially more transforming and politically less powerful than it often appears.