With the continuing consolidation of corporate holdings through mergers and acquisitions, the power of major corporations is of increasing concern from both a practical and a theoretical standpoint. In this study Dugger approaches corporate power as an institutional phenomenon. Through his analysis, he traces the development of US corporate hegemony and explores the impact of the big corporation’s social dominance in every aspect of contemporary life. The author begins with an examination of the nature of the corporate behemoth, its values and behaviour, inner contradictions, drive for economic power and its unrestricted control of the global market economy. He looks at the underlying dynamics of the corporation’s drive for control and the various processes through which its values, meanings and motives are imposed. These processes include coercion, contamination, subordination, emulation and mystification. Dugger shows how the careerism corporations demand systematically draws energy and commitment away from family, community and other spheres of life, thus corroding their meaning and value. He studies the impact of corporate power on the family, schools and colleges, unions, churches, communities, the state and the media and demonstrates how each of the power mechanisms is used to devalue these institutions. Dugger argues that the social vacuum this creates is being filled by the big corporations. His institutional approach to the rise and spread of corporate power, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the crisis of pluralism in the West.