A Brief Thematic History of Corporate Governance

Abstract

In this article we will examine some dominant themes in the history of corporate governance. This will necessarily be of an international nature since Australian and New Zealand owe much to their colonial inheritance and are currently influenced by North American ideas and yet do business with South East Asia where many of the legal systems are of a different background and history. Having identified major themes we shall see how they are relevant to Australia and New Zealand. In doing so we shall consider path dependence amongst other things.