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Course Objectives:
The power of business actors and its implications for democracy have been a concern since the advent of large enterprises in the 19th century. While never completely disappearing again, such concerns have been voiced particularly loudly in specific periods and on specific occasions, such as the increasingly visible reach of corporations across the globe in the context of globalization in the 1970s and 1980s, or the recent financial crisis. Concerns about the corporatization of politics have also been associated with an increasing rise of Euroscepticism even among supporters of ideas of international cooperation and European integration.
However, it is difficult to move from the vague feeling that huge corporations may be a problem for democratic politics to a more systematic and differentiated understanding of why and how that may be the case. One approach to an analysis of business’ political power that provides answers to this challenge is to differentiate between various dimensions of business power, the channels through which this power is exercised, and the measures, which may restore a democratic balance of interests. The aim of this seminar, therefore, is to introduce students to such a perspective on business power in today’s (global) governance and its sources and implications.
Readings: The relevant literature will be provided on learnweb.
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eG