The Evolving Relationship between TNCs and Political Actors and Governments

Research Handbook on Transnational Corporations, Alice de Jong and Roman Tomasic, eds., Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2015

28 Pages Posted: 3 Feb 2016

See all articles by Larry Catá Backer

Larry Catá Backer

The Pennsylvania State University (University Park) – Penn State Law

Date Written: February 1, 2016

Abstract

This contribution considers the nature of the relationships among TNCs, political actors and government, as a set of emerging ecologies of political economy. Each represents a distinct response to the transformation of the global legal, economic and political order in the face of globalization. Each exists autonomously and is evolving simultaneously, yet each is significantly interconnected within a polycentric governance order that lends overall structure without a centering position. The chapter starts with the conventional and traditional ecology of relationships, centered on the state. It then considers the three most distinctive forms of emerging relational ecologies emerging that de-center the state. The first is based on the TNC as the centering element of production chain order. The second is grounded on the emergence of non-state governance centers which assert order through certification, verification, and monitoring. The third posits the emergence of a multi-stakeholder autonomous and self referencing system around production chains. The chapter briefly considers whether there is something like meta theory structuring this disaggregated and scattered by intermeshed systems that have arisen around the state. The examination ends with a brief suggestion of what may lie ahead.

Keywords: TNCs, OECD, CSR, NGOs, global governance, globalizaiton

JEL Classification: F02, G38, K42, M14, P51

Suggested Citation

Backer, Larry Catá, The Evolving Relationship between TNCs and Political Actors and Governments (February 1, 2016). Research Handbook on Transnational Corporations, Alice de Jong and Roman Tomasic, eds., Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2726351

Larry Catá Backer (Contact Author)

The Pennsylvania State University (University Park) – Penn State Law ( email )

Lewis Katz Building
University Park, PA 16802
United States

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