George Monbiot seeks to uncover what many have suspected but few have been able to prove: that big business is taking over Britain. "Captive State" documents the end of representative government in Britain. The traditional business of government - economic and development planning, law and order, protection of the workforce, consumer and environment - is rapidly being twisted out of its hands. The state is no longer the initiator of policy but an increasingly helpless bystander. Quietly, the state, the police, academia and the nominally independent media are falling into the hands of private business. And as institutional corruption strikes at the heart of public life, in a contrast between the desires of big business and the needs of the electorate, the electorate loses out every time.

about the author George Monbiot has been named by the Evening Standard as one of the twenty-five most influential people in Britain and the Independent on Sunday as one of the forty international prophets of the twenty-first century. He is the author of the investigate travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed and No Man's Land. He writes a column for the Guardian and is Honorary Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Keele, and Visiting Professor at the Department of East London. From 1993 to 1995, he was a Visiting Fellow at Green College, Oxford and from 1999 to 2000 he was Visiting Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol. In 1995, Nelson Mandela presented him with a United Nations Global 500 Award for outstanding environmental achievement. He has also won a Llyods National Screenwriting Prize for his screenplay The Norwegian, a Sony Award for radio production and the OneWorld National Press Award..

reviews 'Captive State' has already been called the most explosive book on politics of the current decade and ...I recommend you buy it ... if not for yourself, then for someone else. - ZNet/Z Magazine "Needless to say George’s book, 'Captive State' on the corporate take-over of Britain is a must for anyone interested in understanding the forces underpinning the global GM debate.." - Norfolk Genetic Information Network " George Monbiot's Captive State is a well-written, accessible weapon in the battle against neo-liberalism and deserves to be read by every activist who can get their hands on it." - International Socialist Group

excerpts Two lengthy excerpts from Captive State reprinted in The Guardian) Part 1 Part 2

interviews Corporate Power: George Monbiot Interview

 
 

web site Captive State Web site