Postimperialism: A Class Analysis of Multinational Corporate Expansion

Abstract

New frontiers for substantive research frequently give rise to theoretical challenges. More often than not, these will in fact be old challenges revived or rediscovered in a new context. Political scientists may well discover a fertile field for research in phenomenal expansion of multinational business enterprise. Yet challenges they encounter may not differ in principle from those that have been presented in past by growthtbfcorporate enterprise in particular nations. Indeed, failure of political science to comprehend modern business corporation is well enough known. As Grant McConnell has written, the existence of modern corporation does not accord with longstanding conceptions of political organization, and no theory exists by which it can be reconciled with such conceptions.' The unmistakable relevance of transnational corporations to basic issues of political development and international relations creates a new opportunity for political scientists to face challenges that have been posed but, largely and lamentably, ignored in past. In this essay, three issues that arise from problem of corporate power in political theory are identified with reference to pioneering works on corporate power in modern industrial society. These issues, involving economic oligarchy, managerial authority, and class formation, are then transposed to transnational plane of study. Recent works on transnational enterprise and problems of development in nonindustrial societies indicate that these questions may now be studied on a broader scale than heretofore, at possibly deeper levels of theoretical comprehension.