Multilevel business power in environmental politics: the avocado boom and water scarcity in Chile

Abstract

ABSTRACT The production and export of avocados in Chile have experienced explosive growth since the 1990s, severely threatening local communities’ human right to water. Despite contentious activities and protest, there has been scant reaction from public authorities and policy continues to strongly support avocado exports. We explain this by analyzing the role that business plays in water politics and the different means it has to counter the search for political influence by aggrieved communities. We argue that the outcome is a product of the multilevel deployment of business power. Based on quantitative and qualitative data, we use process tracing methods to unveil business power mechanisms at the local, national and international levels and their connections. We contribute to the cross-fertilization of business power analyses in comparative political economy and environmental politics, and to the understanding of the under-researched multilevel dynamics of business power and the related politics of scale shift.