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‘High Stakes’ and ‘Low‐Intensity Democracy’: Understanding America's Policy of Promoting Democracy

Jason G. Ralph

in American Democracy Promotion: Impulses, Strategies, and Impacts

Explores the gap between rhetoric and practice in the American policy of promoting democracy. It attributes it to the US, promoting two inconsistent goals at the same time: democratization and free ... More

Explores the gap between rhetoric and practice in the American policy of promoting democracy. It attributes it to the US, promoting two inconsistent goals at the same time: democratization and free market capitalism. This is not because the US responds only to corporate interests. Instead, this policy mix stems from America's image of its own success: at the time of its foundation, democratic development was compatible with economic individualism due to extraordinary socio–economic circumstances. However, given the contemporary socio–economic circumstances of new democracies, it would be more appropriate to promote social democracy rather than liberal democracy.Less

France

Jonathan P. Charkham

in Keeping Better Company: Corporate Governance Ten Years On

The system by which companies are managed and controlled in France is influenced by a number of features that are specific to the country: the role and influence of the government, the limited role ... More

The system by which companies are managed and controlled in France is influenced by a number of features that are specific to the country: the role and influence of the government, the limited role of equity investments, the recruitment of managers from among a narrow côterie of students drawn from the grandes écoles, the concept of corporate interest, which, from a legal standpoint, seems to be the criterion for decisions of managers and boards of directors. The mission of the company and the board of directors are clearly explained in the by-laws. The board of directors must participate in strategic decisions, oversee and control the management of the company, and ensure members of the board are accountable to shareholders. There are 739 quoted companies in France. The Paris stock market is managed by Euronext, which has taken over the Brussels, Amsterdam, and Lisbon stock markets.Less

Introduction

Marius Emberland

in The Human Rights of Companies: Exploring the Structure of ECHR Protection

This book investigates the ways in which human rights articulate with business law and practice, adopting as a facilitatory starting point approaches to the issue common in international law and ... More

This book investigates the ways in which human rights articulate with business law and practice, adopting as a facilitatory starting point approaches to the issue common in international law and constitutional law. More closely, it examines the level of protection offered company interests by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The book thus offers a study of the doctrinal response developed in Strasbourg by the European Court of Human Rights to claims for ECHR protection submitted by or on behalf of companies. It is important to appreciate that under the ECHR, the notion of companies enjoying rights protection is not disputed in principle: the Court does not per se regard corporate litigation with suspicion. This does not mean, however, that the protection of corporate interests is plain sailing in terms of ECHR law. The particular features of the corporate person and the interests pursued by such, combined with the particular structure of the ECHR and its international supervision, sometimes pose interpretative and practical challenges in terms of ECHR guarantees.Less

Right-Wing Populism, the Corporate Attack on Working Americans, and the Labor Movement’s Response

Gordon Lafer

in Labor in the Time of Trump

This chapter argues that the problem is a corporate assault, driven not by ideology but rather by business's self-interest. Here, business as a whole participates. This chapter shows that the most ... More

This chapter argues that the problem is a corporate assault, driven not by ideology but rather by business's self-interest. Here, business as a whole participates. This chapter shows that the most dangerous antidemocratic actions and policies are supported by a large majority of corporate actors. When so-called ideologues like the Koch brothers encounter a conflict between their ideology and their self-interest, self-interest wins. The chapter argues that this corporate assault has transformed the political process at the state level and restricted the scope of democratic deliberation. It underscores how the corporate agenda is at odds with what a majority of voters want. Even in states that voted for Trump, evidence shows that the right has been unable to convince voters to support its policy agenda. Indeed, this working-class resistance and support for progressive issues provides hope that organized opposition based on issues can defeat the corporate agenda.Less

Epilogue: “Our Meat from God”

Tycho De Boer

in Nature, Business, and Community in North Carolina's Green Swamp

This last chapter concludes that by the time modern environmentalist movements emerged as the advocates for endangered flora and fauna, wilderness, biodiversity and ecosystem, they faced a defiance ... More

This last chapter concludes that by the time modern environmentalist movements emerged as the advocates for endangered flora and fauna, wilderness, biodiversity and ecosystem, they faced a defiance and hostility from the corporate and national interests they vilified as the main culprits behind the exploitation, abuse, and murder of nature. In areas like the Green Swamp, these environmentalists faced the historical, traditional, and local environment legacy of a community on the edge of swamps and forests and communities who saw themselves in intimate connection with the wilderness. To these communities the welfare of the ecosystem and the biodiversity of the land were often set aside for the more immediate necessities of capitalism and profit. For a majority of people who knew the forest and swamp lands of the Green Swamp region intimately and experientially as inextricable parts of their communal history and progress, the ideology and practices of business and government for the most part affirmed their larger worldviews. Knowing the forest and swamp culturally far more than they knew it ecologically pushed these people to seek for orderly, corporately managed, state-governed forests to serve their capitalist and economic claims. The conclusion suggests that while there may have been efforts to nurture the cutover lands and the continued tapping of their maintaining life by cultivation, this should not be an excuse to continue wasting and squandering nature, rather it should be seen as a model of human resilience and adaptability, drawn from experiential knowledge and the mythological view of the world.Less

Fighting for the local: Americans for Prosperity and the struggle for school boards

Eleni Schirmer and Michael W. Apple

in Corporate Elites and the Reform of Public Education

Corporate-backed philanthropic groups have become increasingly involved in political processes in the past ten years. The Koch Brothers’ and their political advocacy groups, have become particularly ... More

Corporate-backed philanthropic groups have become increasingly involved in political processes in the past ten years. The Koch Brothers’ and their political advocacy groups, have become particularly prominent players. Their influence extends beyond high-profile state-level elections and increasingly have begun investing in municipal affairs of small cities and towns, such as school board elections like Kenosha, Wisconsin and Jefferson County, Colorado in the US. This chapter asks, why do groups like Americans for Prosperity care about small-town school board elections? This chapter highlights two particularly significant local examples in the United States: school board elections in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2014 and Jefferson County, Colorado in 2015. Through documentary analysis of school board records, news reports, and district evaluations, in both Wisconsin and Colorado, we chronicle the political contest for control of each school board. Our findings illustrate the ideological and political project of corporate, conservative influence in public education in the United States.Less

Global Health Actors and Activities

Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Yogan Pillay, and Timothy H. Holtz

in Textbook of Global Health

In recent years, the number of global health actors engaged in projects, research, diplomacy, and governance activities has multiplied, adding to long-existing players and actions. This chapter ... More

In recent years, the number of global health actors engaged in projects, research, diplomacy, and governance activities has multiplied, adding to long-existing players and actions. This chapter examines an array of these, including: a range of United Nations multilateral agencies, international financial and economic institutions, bilateral aid agencies, regional organizations and economic unions, military actors, emerging South–South arrangements, as well as non-governmental organizations, humanitarian and religious agencies, contract providers, government technical agencies and research institutions, philanthropic foundations, global health and development think tanks, advocacy groups and alliances, social and political movements, university and hospital initiatives, professional membership organizations, public-private partnerships, new financing mechanisms, and growing corporate interests. The chapter concludes with a critical political economy analysis of these actors and activities.Less

The Media Makes the Message

Tula A. Connell

in Conservative Counterrevolution: Challenging Liberalism in 1950s Milwaukee

This chapter looks at how the city's fading foreign-language press and financially challenged labor media were offset by a vociferous conservative suburban press. Simultaneously, large mainstream ... More

This chapter looks at how the city's fading foreign-language press and financially challenged labor media were offset by a vociferous conservative suburban press. Simultaneously, large mainstream media outlets began a notable ideological shift toward free market triumphalism, while the surge in far-right national broadcast media and print publications began reaching Milwaukee households. This chapter underlines how the spread of far-right media, far from spontaneous, was generated with the partnership of large corporate interests that privately financed such endeavors even as they publicly espoused support for New Deal principles. Although most corporations publicly remained moderate in their approach to issues such as public provision of social welfare programs and unionization, many joined with “fringe” groups to surreptitiously unravel the postwar New Deal economic order. As such, even businesses that seemingly had bought into commercial Keynesianism played a considerable part in the conservative backlash to the New Deal.Less

Introduction

in Science for Sale: The Perils, Rewards, and Delusions of Campus Capitalism

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the close ties between universities and corporations in the U.S. This volume examines whether commercial values have ... More

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the close ties between universities and corporations in the U.S. This volume examines whether commercial values have contaminated academic research and diverted it from socially beneficial goals to mercenary service on behalf of profit-seeking corporate interests. It evaluates the effectiveness of measures to address the problem associated with the so-called commercialized science.Less

Denying Climate Change Is Denying Health

Michael D. Stein and Sandro Galea

in Pained: Uncomfortable Conversations about the Public's Health

This chapter explores the politics of climate change and how politics can affect people’s health. In recent years, global environmental climate change has become a third rail in American culture, ... More

This chapter explores the politics of climate change and how politics can affect people’s health. In recent years, global environmental climate change has become a third rail in American culture, dividing people along political lines. The Republican Party espouses a range of positions, from the denial of climate change to denial of people’s role in causing the problem. The Democratic Party falls more in line with the science on this issue, which is largely settled. There is little disagreement among scientists that the earth is getting warmer. Hence, the political argument is not really about the science as much as it is about priorities. The Republican Party prioritizes deregulation and corporate interests over the potential disruption of these interests caused by the structural changes necessary to address climate change. The Democratic Party, for its part, has increasingly chosen to prioritize the future of the planet over the unfettered primacy of markets. Ultimately, climate change threatens health. When people recognize that climate change matters for health, they open the door for health to become an organizing principle in addressing this issue. Indeed, if people do not act on climate change, they are compromising their health.Less