A Critique of the Diagnosis and Cure for `Enronitis': The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Neoliberal Governance of Corporate America

Abstract

The Enron collapse in 2001 represented a high-water mark in the recent round of corporate scandals in the United States. In response to this crisis, the US government introduced the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Act or SOX) in July 2002. Until now, the debates have remained silent on the political and social dimensions of the Act. By situating the discourse of corporate governance within the context of capitalist society, I offer an alternative explanation of the role and significance of SOX. I argue that the pre-eminence of the corporate governance framework explains away the deeper causes of crisis by maintaining our focus on the symptoms, such as greed on the part of corporate executives, lack of transparency and an absence of accountability, as opposed to the structural causes connected to neoliberal-led restructuring of capitalist society and the contradictions therein.