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Business and the Countervailing Powers of Civil Society 16 Global Public Policy We are in a critical period where civil society organizations actively influence business political behavior, while corporations and business associations are adopting new and flexible strategies aimed at closer contact with civil society. These processes are accompanied by a strong interest of intergovernmental organizations to regulate these relations. Against the backdrop of such broad reorientations, this book analyzes the new and changing roles business and civil society actors to offer an accurate portrayal of the formation of global public policy. The volume investigates the potential for, and emergence of, new policy arrangements along with their patterns of conflict and cooperation. Building upon theoretical inspirations from various traditions studying international affairs this book develops and applies the concepts of policy arrangements and countervailing power to the field of global business – civil society relations. The authors examine a range of key issues including labor, consumers, global finance, the mining industry, climate policy and the World Economic and Social Forums. Global Public Policy will be of strong interest to students and researchers of international political economy, international relations and international business. Karsten Ronit is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. RIPE Series in Global Political Economy Series Editors: Louise Amoore (University of Newcastle, UK), Randall Germain (Carleton University, Canada) and Rorden Wilkinson (University of Manchester, UK) Formerly edited by Otto Holman (University of Amsterdam), Marianne Marchand (Universidad de las Américas-Puebla), Henk Overbeek (Free University, Amsterdam) and Marianne Frunklin (University of Amsterdam) The RIPE series editorial board are: Mathias Albert (Bielefeld University, Germany), Mark Beeson (University of Queensland, Australia), A. Claire Cutler (University of Victoria, Canada), Marianne Franklin (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Stephen Gill (York University, Canada), Jeffrey Hart (Indiana University, USA), Eric Helleiner (Trent University, Canada), Otto Holman (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Marianne H. Marchand (Universidad de las Américas-Puebla, Mexico), Craig N. Murphy (Wellesley College, USA), Robert O’Brien (McMaster University, Canada), Henk Overbeek (Vrije Universiteit, the Netherlands), Anthony Payne (University of Sheffield, UK) and V. Spike Peterson (University of Arizona, USA). This series, published in association with the Review of International Political Economy, provides a forum for current debates in international political economy. The series aims to cover all the central topics in IPE and to present innovative analyses of emerging topics. The titles in the series seek to transcend a state-centered discourse and focus on three broad themes: G the nature of the forces driving globalization forward G resistance to globalization G the transformation of the world order. The series comprises two strands: The RIPE Series in Global Political Economy aims to address the needs of students and teachers, and the titles will be published in hardback and paperback. Titles include Transnational Classes and International Relations Kees van der Pijl Gender and Global Restructuring The Clash within Sightings, sites and resistances Civilisations Edited by Marianne H. Marchand Coming to terms with and Anne Sisson Runyan cultural conflicts Dieter Senghaas Global Political Economy Contemporary theories Global Unions? Edited by Ronen Plan Theory and strategies of organized labour in the global political Ideologies of Globalization economy Contending visions of a new world order Edited by Jeffrey Harrod and Mark Rupert Robert O’Brien Political Economy of a Plural World Global Institutions, Marginalization, Critical reflections on power, morals and Development and civilizations Craig N. Murphy Robert Cox with Michael Schechter Critical Theories, International A Critical Rewriting of Global Political Relations and ‘the Anti-Globalisation Economy Movement’ Integrating reproductive, productive The politics of global and virtual economies resistance V. Spike Peterson Edited by Catherine Eschle and Bice Maiguashca Contesting Globalization Space and place in the world economy Globalization, Governmentality, and André C. Drainville Global Politics Regulations for the rest of us? Global Institutions and Development Ronnie D. Lipschutz, with James K. Framing the world? Rowe Edited by Morten Bøås and Desmond McNeil Routledge/RIPE Studies in Global Political Economy is a forum for innovative new research intended for a high-level specialist readership, and the titles will be avail- able in hardback only. Titles include: 1. Globalization and Governance* 6. Transnational Capitalism and the Edited by Assen Prakash and Struggle over Europe an Integration Jeffrey A. Hart Bastiaan van Apeldoorn 2. Nation-States and Money 7. World Financial Orders The past, present and An historical international political future of national economy currencies Paul Langley Edited by Emily Gilbert and Eric Helleiner 8. The Changing Politics of Finance in Korea and Thailand 3. The Global Political Economy of From deregulation to debacle Intellectual Property Rights Xiaoke Zhang The new enclosures? Christopher May 9. Anti-Immigrantism in Western Democracies 4. Intergrating Central Europe Statecraft, desire and the politics EU expansion and Poland, of exclusion Hungary and the Czech Roxanne Lynn Doty Republic Otto Holman 10. The Political Economy of European Employment 5. Capitalist Restructuring, European intergration and Globalisation and the Third Way the transnationalization of Lessons from the Swedish model the (un)employment question J. Magnus Ryner Edited by Henk Overbeek 11. Rethinking Global Political Edited by Andrew Baker, David Economy Hudson and Richard Woodward Emerging issues, unfolding odssyes Edited by Mary Ann Tétreault, 17. Resisting Intellectual Property Robert A. Denemark, Kenneth P. Debora J. Halbert Thomas and Kurt Burch 18. Neoliberal Hegemony A global critique 12. Rediscovering International Edited by Dieter Plehwe, Bernhard Relations Theory Walpen and Gisela Neuhöffer Matthew Davies and Michael Niemann 19. Global Standards of Market Civilization 13. International Trade and Edited by Brett Bowden and Developing Countries* Leonard Seabrooke Bargaining coalitions in the GATT & WTO 20. Beyond Globalization Amrita Narlikar Capitalism, territoriality and the international relations of modernity 14. The Southern Cone Model Hannes Lacher The political economy of regional capitalist development in Latin 21. Images of Gramsci America Connections and contentions in Nicola Phillips political theory and international relations 15. The Idea of Global Civil Society Edited by Andreas Bieler and Politics and ethics of a Adam David Morton globalizing era Edited by Randall D. Germain 22. Global Public Policy and Michael Kenny Business and the countervailing powers of civil society 16. Governing Financial Globalization Edited by Karsten Ronit International political economy and multi-level governance *Also available in paperback Global Public Policy Business and the countervailing powers of civil society Edited by Karsten Ronit First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. ©2007 Karsten Ronit for selection and editorial matter; individual contributors, their contributions All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-01651-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 978–0–415–36511–6 (hbk) ISBN 978–0–203–01650–1 (ebk) Contents List of contributors viii Preface x Series preface xi List of abbreviations xiii 1 Introduction: global public policy – the new policy 1 arrangements of business and countervailing groups KARSTEN RONIT 2 Labour and business on a global scale 43 ALEX DICEANU AND ROBERT O’BRIEN 3 Modes of consumer participation and engagement 65 in the making of global consumer policy KARSTEN RONIT 4 Governance and contestation in global finance 89 TONY PORTER 5 Privilege and underprivilege: countervailing groups, 110 policy and the mining industry at the global level AYNSLEY KELLOW 6 Two worlds apart? Davos’ World Economic 132 Forum and Porto Alegre’s World Social Forum MICHELLE BEYELER 7 The evolution of climate policy – business and environmental 154 organizations between alliance building and entrenchment SHANNON K. ORR 8 Conclusions: the predicaments of the new policy 174 arrangements in global public policy KARSTEN RONIT Index 185 Contributors Michelle Beyeler is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Assistant Lecturer at the Institute of Political
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