Mikler John - The Political Power of Global Corporations

Copyright John Mikler 2018

The right of John Mikler to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2018 by Polity Press

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ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-9845-8

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-9846-5(pb)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Mikler, John, author.

Title: The political power of global corporations / John Mikler.

Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017023460 (print) | LCCN 2017036603 (ebook) | ISBN 9780745698489 (Mobi) | ISBN 9780745698496 (Epub) | ISBN 9780745698458 (hardback) | ISBN 9780745698465 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: International business enterprisesPolitical aspects. | Business and politics. | International relations.

Classification: LCC HD2755.5 (ebook) | LCC HD2755.5 .M55 2018 (print) | DDC 322/.3dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017023460

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For Kara, Annika, and Erin

Over lunch one Arctic winter's day in 2013, while I was on sabbatical as a Visiting Fellow at Durham University, David Held suggested I should write a book on the political power of global corporations. My Handbook of Global Companies was on the verge of being released, and he thought I might be in a good position to say something about the topic. You know: theory, framework, key examples, that kind of thing, he said. It seemed like too big a topic for one book, and while I was flattered to be asked I was less than enthusiastic about the possibility of writing it at the time. Without his encouragement I doubt I would have taken on the task, and the idea grew on me until four years later the result is this book.

On the way, the central themes emerged primarily as a result of discussions with students. For me teaching is a joy, and actually my main source of intellectual stimulation. I hope it is for my students as well. It seems wrong to single out any individuals, yet I feel I owe Harry Maher a debt of gratitude. He took my senior undergraduate globalization subject in 2015, and in one tutorial I found myself responding to his well-informed critique of neoliberal globalization with the exclamation: I don't need neoliberalism, I don't need to talk about markets, market forces and marketization to understand the power of the world's major corporations! I know who they are, I know their names, I know where they come from, I know where they go to, and I know what they do! Everyone laughed at how surprisingly (including to me) worked up I had got. Some agreed with my impassioned response while others disagreed, but at that moment I realized what had to be at the core of a book on the political power of global corporations: an explicit focus on them as political actors, and re-territorializing them as reflecting geopolitical patterns of power rather than stressing their transnationality.

There are so many people to thank in the writing and completion of this book, I am bound to leave somebody out. I hope they will forgive me if I do.

Before the invitation to write this book and the 2015 eureka moment mentioned above, I have found the work of Stephen Wilks and Doris Fuchs hugely influential. They are not the only ones to speak truth to the political power of global corporations, but for me they do so with flair and clarity. They are nothing less than the inspiration behind this book.

For making the project a possibility, and enabling it, Louise Knight, Nekane Tanaka Galdos, and all the team at Polity cannot be thanked enough for their support, advice, and encouragement at every stage.

So often the focus for academic research is on sources of funding, when what is most valuable is time. I am grateful to the University of Sydney for granting me a six-month sabbatical to complete the book in 2016. I am also particularly appreciative of the understanding and support of Colin Wight and Simon Tormey as respective Heads of the Department of Government and International Relations and School of Social and Political Sciences.

For reading and commenting on drafts of the entire manuscript I am grateful to my wife, Kara, and Ainsley Elbra. Ainsley also deserves thanks for her research assistance, and especially her remarkably extensive knowledge of the literature on private governance, as well as its practice. For their invaluable advice and suggestions, I am grateful to Linda Weiss, Nicola Phillips, Graeme Gill, Tony Payne, Tom Hunt, Genevieve LeBaron, Adam Barber, Damien Cahill, Jason Sharman, Richard Eccleston, Anika Gauja, Rodney Smith, Madison Cartwright, Tabitha Benney, Shahar Hameiri, Stephen Bell, Andrew Hindmoor, Elizabeth Thurbon, Wes Widmaier, Karsten Ronit, Susan Engel, Susan Park, Matthias Hofferberth, Delphine Rabet, Hannah Murphy-Gregory, James van Alstine, Duncan Wigan, Aynsley Kellow, Jan Fichtner, David Held, Eva-Maria Nag, Caner Bakir, Fred Gale, Laure Astill, Lyne Latulippe, Alison Christians, and Stewart Jackson.

For their stimulating discussions and insights that have informed, and indeed changed, the book's contents, Sophie Roberts, Brian Coughlan, Imogen Fountain, Rob Clark, Rachel Holden, Danny Bielik, Ellis Zilka, Gillian Ramsay, Sundran Rajendra, Jill Greatorex, Chris Anastopoulos, Ken Engsmyr, and Teresa Moffett deserve thanks. And of course, the Wednesday-night tennis crew: Paul Thurloe, Belinda Mullen, Jim Leeper, Joanne Corcoran, Lachlan Habgood, Paul Sanderson, and Ben Clarke. Not only have they been supportive and offered their opinions, but they have put up with my post-match diatribes on a weekly basis when they had every right to feel entitled to enjoy a quiet beer. My thanks also go to friends in the corporate world for their insights, advice, and suggestions, particularly Stephen Ferris, Ian Taylor and Rob Grierson. Our long discussions, which I tell colleagues constitute fieldwork, are always a pleasure. To friends and family I have not named, please know that without your love and support completing this project would have been impossible.