The Role of Business in Global Governance

Abstract

The core idea of the global governance debate is that political and economic changes associated with globalization have led to shifts in political capacity. Specifically, scholars argue that the state has been losing political capacity to non-state and supra-state actors (Messner and Nuscheler 1996). Among these, business plays a special role. In the view of many observers, business (in particular large transnational corporations) is among the primary beneficiaries if not causes of the ‘decline of the state’ (Fuchs 2002).¹ Yet, there is little systematic analysis of the political role of business in this globalizing world. Two debates attempt to shed some light on different facets of this role. What is missing so far, however, is a systematic integration of their findings as well as an embedding of arguments and evidence in a sound theoretical framework.