History of multinational corporations (MNCs) and how they developed, why corporations tend to influence politics, lobbying and its political and societal side effects, and how to limit corporation’s influence

1. THE POWER OF CORPORATIONS

2. BUSINESS, POLITICS AND CULTURE
BERISHA, UKSHIN DOGLIANI MAJER, UMBERTO GHABBOUR, SALOUMI
BALDONI, ALESSIO BOGAVAC, JELENA AVREN, AYLIN HEDSTRAND, MARIA
SEMINAR GROUP 1
TEAM A

3. THE POWER OF CORPORATIONS
LITERATURE
Literature review
INTRODUCTION
Our interest in studying
corporations’ history
and effects
DEVELOPMENT
How MNCs developped
LOBBYING
Political and societal
side effects
MNC & POLITICS
Why corporations tend
to influence politics
CHANGING THE STORY
How to Limit
Corporation’s Influence
DISCUSSION
.
QUESTIONS?

4. LITERATURE
Beck (2000, p. 5)

5. LITERATURE cont.
Foreign Direct Investment
Changes of state
legislatures speed up the
process by empowering
MNCs
Nace writes in Barley
(2007, p. 203)
Chandler and Mazlish (2005, p. 24 et seq.)

6. LITERATURE cont.
A
B
C
Production
Retail
Subsidiary
Acquisition/
merger
X X
D
Y

7. DEVELOPMENT
“There are at least three ways that corporate
influence can be said to have undermined the
concept of representative democracy and, by
extension, the public good”
Barley (2007, p.204)
Promoting legislation
Hamper or redirect agencies
Privatization of functions
Stephen R. Barley

8. DEVELOPMENT cont.
BAPCPA
(Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act)
and PDUFA (Prescription Drug User Fee Act)
Chandler and Mazlish (2005, p.31)

9. MNCs AND POLITICS
The new epoch allows MNCs to grow by expanding geographically
Accelerated by factors such as instant communication
The role of MNCs transcends the economic part
Influence of every sphere of the society
Past decades corporations mostly trading companies

10. LOBBYING
Lobbying and Politics – Problematic Implications
Democracy is undermined
Corporations possess important resources
Politicians are afraid of losing them (global competition!)
Superiority of corporate interests
Weaker consumer protection (e.g. PDUFA)
Looser employment and fiscal policies
Political agendas are dominated by neoliberal ideologies

11. LOBBYING cont.
Lobbying and the society
Changes regulatory agencies’ focus from protecting consumers to serving
corporations
the PDUFA the and pharmaceutical companies (case)
Increase in revenues
Certifying drugs faster than it used to
Negative impact on citizens
Corporations co-opt in changing ideology of regulatory agencies

12. HOW TO CHANGE?
“[...] globality is an unavoidable condition of human intercourse at the close of
the twentieth century.” Beck (2000)
“[...] no one knows, or can know, how such questions affecting the core of
civilization can be answered across the trenches that divide rich and poor,
ethnic groups, continents or religions, each with their complex histories of
violence.” (Beck, 2000, p.15)

13. QUESTIONS?

14. THANK YOU!

15. REFERENCES
 Barely, Stephen R. Corporations, Democracy and Public
Good. Journal of Management Inquiry (2007). Vol 16; P. 201-
214
Beck, Ulrich. What is Globalization?, trans. Camiller, Patrick.
London: Polity Press (2000). P. 1-15.
Chandler, Alfred D., and Bruce Mazlish. Leviathans:
Multinational corporations and the new global history.
Cambridge University Press (2005).