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Semester 1

Corporate Lobbying and Policymaking in the Global Economy (PLIT10166)

Subject

Politics

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 4 Politics courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses, and we cannot consider interdisciplinary courses or courses without sufficient Politics/Government/International Relations focus. **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

This course examines the governance of the global economy by private corporations. It is structured around several fundamental questions. What role do corporations play in international institutions and what is the nature and extent of their authority? How do the shifting forces of globalization (and anti-globalization) affect the power business wields to shape public policies? In what ways do new trends in corporate sustainability (like conscious capitalism, corporate social responsibility and 'business for good') impact corporate lobbying? Finally, how powerful are corporations in global politics? In seeking answers to these questions, this course covers both theoretical and empirical perspectives on how, when, and why corporations are able to influence international institutions, global standards and regulations, and international negotiation processes.

Course Description

The course has two parts. First, it reviews different theoretical approaches to analysing how corporate influence over global public policymaking operates, and what challenges we face in understanding these dynamics. These approaches include, for example: population ecology, exchange and economic theories of lobbying, politicization, issue attention cycle, and informational models of lobbying. Second, it reviews scholarship on corporate lobbying dynamics in a variety of different areas in global governance, such as international trade, pharmaceuticals and health care, financial regulation, intellectual property rights and global environmental politics. The European Union is used a focal case for comparison with intergovernmental and regional organizations. **Indicative topics include: Corporate Lobbying Strategies; Balancing Corporate Lobbying: Advocacy & Social Movements; Interest Group Intermediation and Regulation; Transnational Corporate Elites and the Global Economy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Lobbying; Financial Industry Lobbying; Lobbying, Data Protection, and Internet Governance; Platform Firms and the New World of Lobbying; Practitioner's perspective on lobbying: careers, training, prospects. **The course teaches students how to think critically about corporate lobbying and influence in global public policymaking. Through a combination of lectures and seminars, students learn how to identify and understand the different means that private sector groups use to shape different aspects of global governance and global and regional policymaking. Through the use of multiple case studies, students learn how some of the most important facets of the global economy today are being shaped by private sector actors. Students are also encouraged to think analytically and critically about the role of corporations, lobbyists, market forces, and how global governance operates by exploring the limitations to private sector influence. Finally, assessments are both practical and academic. The practical element sees students developing and presenting campaign pitches on a real-world governance case study. Effort will be made to bring in guest speakers from the corporate lobbying sector to give students a practitioner's view of the topic. The academic element sees students develop and support an argument related to current debates in the literature on corporate lobbying and policymaking.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 80%, Practical Exam 20%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a Politics exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one Politics course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second Politics course will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the September Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

view the timetable and further details for this course