Investment Dependence and Political Conflict in Developing Countries: A Comparative Regional Analysis

Abstract

This chapter investigates the relationship between the multinational corporate penetration of developing countries and their levels of domestic political conflict.1 Political conflict is defined as action by non-governmental actors that is designed to change either the government or its policy. Research by Rummel (1966) and Tanter (1966) shows that political conflict may be separated into two dimensions, turmoil and internal war, with the former consisting of spontaneous, poorly organized, and violent conflicts and the latter including highly organized and extremely violent attempts to remove the government. Gurr and Lichbach (1986) describe a third type of conflict — protest — that is non-violent, well organized, and focuses exclusively on changing government policy. Hibbs (1973) shows that these forms of conflict are both empirically distinct and a product of different social forces.KeywordsForeign Direct InvestmentGross Domestic ProductIncome InequalityAfrican StatePolitical ConflictThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.