Suiting Themselves: How Corporations Drive the Global Agenda / Edition 1

by Sharon Beder

Overview

In this brilliantly researched exposé, 'communications Rottweiler' Sharon Beder blasts open the backrooms and boardrooms to reveal how the international corporate elite dictate global politics for their own benefit. Beder shows how they created business associations and "think tanks" in the 1970s to drive public policy, forced the worldwide privatization and deregulation of public services in the 1980s and 1990s (enabling a massive transfer of ownership and control over essential services) and, still not satisfied, have worked relentlessly since the late 1990s to rewrite the very rules of the global economy to funnel wealth and power into their pockets.

Want a globalized and homogenized world of conflict, poverty and massive environmental degradation run by a corporate oligarchy that wipes its feet on democracy? Or a democratic world, where poverty is history, companies work for people and clean water is a right, not a privilege you pay for? Beder's message is clear - it's your world, and it's time to fight for it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781844073313
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/01/2006
Edition description:	1
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Professor Beder is a qualified professional engineer and worked in this field until a career shift into researching and teaching environmental politics. She has held a number of appointments at Australian universities over the past two decades - most recently as professor in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication at the University of Wollongong in Australia. Her previous books include Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism.

Table of Contents

A Corporate Class * National Influence * International Coercion * Washington Consensus Down Under * From Public Service to Private Profit * The Trade Agenda * Trade in Services * Coercing Trade Agreements * Deregulating Investment * Globalization Versus Democracy * Conclusion: The Triumph of Corporate Rights * Index

Editorial Reviews

'Sharon Beder carefully and brilliantly dissects how corporations conspire to ravage the world in the false name of progress and democracy. Read this book, you owe it to your children.'
John Stauber, Executive Director, Center for Media and Democracy

'Sharon Beder has taken the taboo subjects of propaganda and censorship in free societies and exposed their insidious threat.'
John Pilger

'Beder's analysis is comprehensive, steely and clinical. She lifts the lid on an elaborate tapestry of lies, deceit, intimidation and destruction.'
Harold Pinter

'[Beder is] the scourge of the world's environment-damaging corporates and public relations bosses.'
Evening Post, New Zealand

'[Beder] is the master of the sound bite and is a communications Rottweiler... [She] exposes conspiracies and scandals of the highest dimensions.'
Michael Pollak and Margaret MacNabb

'A provocative, stimulating and challenging read ...Beder's style and attention to detail makes this a must-read book for any one interested in big business, globalization and sustainable development.'
International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development (Inderscience)

'This is an excellent introduction to the politics of globalisation from a good researcher. More than most, Beder balances an appreciation of the global situation with detailed empirical knowledge.'
Watchdog, 115

From the Publisher