Agents of Neoliberal Globalization: Corporate Networks, State Structures, and Trade Policy

by Michael C. Dreiling, Derek Y. Darves

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107133969
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/26/2016
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Michael Dreiling is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon, specializing in political and environmental sociology. He is the author of two books and numerous research articles, and is currently working on a comparative study of energy industry networks. Awarded Distinguished University Teaching in 2009, the Martin Luther King, Jr Distinguished Service Award in 2010, and numerous leadership awards in 2015, Professor Dreiling is also active in the nonprofit world to promote nonviolence, environmental care, and an economy that is fair for all. A Bold Peace - a feature documentary film coproduced with Matthew Eddy - depicts that vision of a better world.

Derek Darves holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Oregon, where he focused on organizational theory, quantitative methods, religion, and power structure research. Currently he works as a research manager and statistical analyst for a pension fund in New York City. An ordained Episcopal Priest, he has contributed to several empirical reports on trends within the Episcopal Church, and serves part-time at a variety of churches in the dioceses of Newark and New York.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Corporate political unity and class agency; 3. A critical sociology of US trade policy; 4. Forging a neoliberal trade policy network, 1967–94; 5. Inside the state, corporate participation in trade policy; 6. Fusing class agency to a state trade policy apparatus; 7. Conclusion.