Interlocking Directorates: Australian and New Zealand Comparisons

Abstract

Interlocking directorates (that is, the links created by a director who is on board of more than one company or organization) are compared between two countries, Australia and New Zealand, and within countries by ownership. This article takes the top thirty companies of both countries to look at differences between their patterns of interlocking in 1998. The key finding is that the interlocks reveal a secondary productive capital political power layer but underneath this is a first tier of power, belonging to finance capital. The ownership of top companies in Australia and particularly in New Zealand is primarily in the hands of nominee companies owned by finance capital.