Agents of Neoliberal Globalization

Corporate Networks, State Structures, and Trade Policy

Michael C. Dreiling, Derek Y. Darves

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781107133969
• eBook ISBN: 9781316792759
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Depictions of globalization commonly recite a story of a market unleashed, bringing Big Macs and iPhones to all corners of the world. Human society appears as a passive observer to a busy revolution of an invisible global market, paradoxically unfolding by its own energy. Sometimes, this market is thought to be unleashed by politicians working on the surface of an autonomous state. This book rejects both perspectives and provides an analytically rich alternative to conventional approaches to globalization. By the 1980s, an enduring corporate coalition advanced in nearly synonymous terms free trade, tax cuts, and deregulation. Highly networked corporate leaders and state officials worked in concert to produce the trade policy framework for neoliberal globalization. Marshalling original network data and a historical narrative, this book shows that the globalizing corporate titans of the late 1960s aligned with economic conservatives to set into motion this vision of a global free market.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Common Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Corporate Political Unity and Class Agency
• 3 A Critical Sociology of US Trade Policy
• 4 Forging a Neoliberal Trade Policy Network, 1967–1994
• 5 Inside the State: Corporate Participation in Trade Policy
• 6 Fusing Class Agency to a State Trade Policy Apparatus
• 7 Conclusion: Agents of Globalization
• Appendix 1 Data and Network Methods for 1991–1993 NAFTA Sample
• Appendix 2 Data and Methods for Measuring and Analyzing Corporate Unity in American Trade Policy
• References
• Index