Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Schwartz, Michael | Shandra, John | Van de Rijt, Arnout | Mizruchi, Mark.
Date
2012-12-01
Keywords
Sociology
Department
Department of Sociology.
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76827
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
Economic globalization raises questions about whether the emerging transnational business class acts in unison or whether the global business community is internally factionalized. In this context, interlocking directorates that connect transnational corporations play an important role. However, we know surprisingly little about the impact the growing number of such transnational interlocks has on national-level economic and political strategies. Transnational capitalist class (TCC) theory posits that a segment of global capital has emerged as a class and seeks to influence national governments on behalf of transnational class interests by engaging in political behavior that is 1) globally, rather than nationally oriented; 2) motivated by collective, rather than individual interests; and 3) unified, even among firms domiciled in different nations. My dissertation tests the relationship between transnational interlocks and transnational class-informed political behavior. To accomplish this, I combine data on corporate political action committee (PAC) donations with information about corporate interlocking directorates between Global Fortune 500 (G500) companies for every two years between 2000-2006. Data on the formation of Political Action Committees (PACs) and PAC donations originates from the Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org). Data on corporate interlocks come from William Carroll's (2010) data. Carroll collected the names of directors from corporate annual reports, available electronically at official corporate websites or in the Mergent Online database. Other data utilized in the dissertation comes from the website www.USAspending.gov, which is a searchable database of each federal contract, the database is made public as part of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act; and from the LexisNexis Corporate Affiliations Database. I find support for all three aspects of transnational class-informed behavior. In chapter 1, I examine the political donations of foreign G500 firms in the United States and find that, when controlling for individual interests, the most central firms in the transnational interlock network contribute the most money to U.S. politicians. In chapter 2, I demonstrate that of the foreign firms contributing money to U.S. politicians, the ones with the most interlocks designate the greatest percentage of their donations to changing the ideological composition of Congress to be more friendly to the collective interests of global business, rather than pursuing the individual interests of their firm through pragmatic donations to incumbents. In chapter 3, I find evidence of unified political behavior among pairs of firms domiciled in different countries that share directors. Finally, in chapter 4, I find that transnational interlocks have political consequences for American firms, contributing to the decline of corporate liberalism. Specifically, I find that the more central U.S. firms in the transnational interlock network exhibit a greater degree of corporate conservatism. | 151 pages
Recommended Citation
Murray, Josh, "Transnational Interlocks and Global Business" (2012). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 2703.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/2703