Interlock Globally, Act Domestically: Corporate Political Unity in the 21st Century

Abstract

Long-term structural changes to the American economy, such as the decline of labor unions, the era of deregulation, and the decline of commercial banking and concomitant rise of investment banking, have led to scholarly debate over the extent to which the American business class is politically unified. At the same time, the increasing globalization of economic activity over the last half century has generated similar academic disagreement regarding a potential transnational business class and its implications for national capitalist unity. In this article, I present evidence supporting the view that as of 2006, the corporate elite were relatively unified both within the United States and transnationally. Furthermore, I find that the network mechanisms that facilitate this unity are largely transnational, indicating a shift in center of corporate class organization and the interests likely represented by corporate political action in the 21st century.