The Constitution and the Voluntary Association: Some Notes Toward a Theory

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Abstract
The pluralistic social group should be assimilated into constitutional theory. Everyone knows that corporations exist—although some are rather surprised to learn that they are relative latecomers to the social scene— but few do anything about it. This chapter reverts to the question again below, in the discussion of the corporation as a private government, but here it stresses the more general point: Corporations do exercise political power. If associations (corporations) wield political power, they should be responsible in a political sense. The corporation and other voluntary associations have contributed substantially to alterations in the structure of government established in 1787. The communications industry lends another example of how "public" policies can be privately made. The Federal Communications Commisssion in a rare burst of activity took the industry at its word and attempted to enact into administrative rule the code of ethics on radio and television commercials of the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters, the reaction immediate and effective.

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