This book examines the role of institutional shareholders in corporate governance, which is the system by which companies are directed and controlled. This is a subject of great concern to "public companies", their management, their shareholders and their employees. The recent concern about the effectiveness of corporate governance in a number of different countries has produced an outpouring of books and other publications including the Cadbury Committee Report which sought to address the principal problems arising in the UK. The unusual feature of this book is that it compares systems operating in Australia with those in the UK while at the same time also looking carefully at US, German and Japanese experience. The significance of the subject matter of this book lies in the fact that institutional investors collectively hold a very large proportion of the equity capital of the UK "corporate sector", and a sizeable proportion of the equity capital of the Australian equivalent. In addition domestic companies in turn occupy an extremely significant position in the UK economy and a significant one in the Australian economy. How these companies are managed is of very great significance to the economies of these countries.