Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:50:01.656Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic Actors' Lobbying Influence on the Prospects for War and Peace

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2013

Stephen G. Brooks
Stephen G. Brooks*
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Political scientists and economists have long been interested in the role of special interests in the policymaking process. In the past few years, a series of important new books have argued forcefully that the lobbying activities of economic actors have an important influence on the prospects for war and peace. All of these analyses claim that whether economic actors enhance or decrease the likelihood of conflict ultimately depends on the domestic political balance between economic actors who have a strong vested interest in pushing for peace versus those that do not. I advance two contrary arguments. At least among the advanced states, I posit there are no longer any economic actors who will be favorable toward war and who will lobby the government with this preference. All of the identified mechanisms that previously contributed to such lobbying in these states have been swept away with the end of colonialism and the rise of economic globalization. In particular, I show that the current structure of the global economy now makes it feasible for foreign direct investment to serve as an effective substitute for conquest in a way that was not possible in previous eras. My second argument concerns those economic actors in advanced states with a preference for peace. I posit that it has become unnecessary for them to directly lobby the government to avoid war on economic grounds because economic globalization—the accumulation of decisions by economic actors throughout the globe—now has sufficiently clear economic incentives for leaders.

Type
Review Essay
Information
International Organization , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , October 2013 , pp. 863 - 888
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Austen-Smith, David. 1995. Campaign Contributions and Access. American Political Science Review 89 (3):566–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austen-Smith, David, and Wright, John R.. 1992. Competitive Lobbying for a Legislator's Vote. Social Choice and Welfare 9 (3):229–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austen-Smith, David, and Wright, John R.. 1994. Counteractive Lobbying. American Journal of Political Science 38 (1):25–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austen-Smith, David, and Wright, John R.. 1996. Theory and Evidence for Counteractive Lobbying. American Journal of Political Science 40 (2):543–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank R., Berry, Jeffrey M., Hojnacki, Marie, Kimball, David C., and Leech, Beth L.. 2009. Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1983. A Theory of Competition Among Pressure Groups for Political Influence. Quarterly Journal of Economics 98 (3):371–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brecher, Michael, and Wilkenfield, Jonathan. 2000. A Study of Crisis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Brooks, Stephen G. 1999. The Globalization of Production and the Changing Benefits of Conquest. Journal of Conflict Resolution 43 (5):646–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, Stephen G. 2005. Producing Security: Multinational Corporations, Globalization, and the Changing Calculus of Conflict. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broz, J. Lawrence, and Frieden, Jeffry A.. 2001. The Political Economy of International Monetary Relations. Annual Review of Political Science 4 (1):317–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 2013. The World Factbook. Washington, D.C.: Central Intelligence Agency. Available at ⟨https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html⟩. Accessed 1 June 2013.Google Scholar
Conybeare, John. 1983. Tariff Protection in Developed and Developing Countries: A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis. International Organization 37 (3):441–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1967. Pluralist Democracy in the United States: Conflict and Consent. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Dicken, Peter. 2003. Global Shift: Reshaping the Global Economic Map in the Twenty-first Century. 4th ed. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Eichengreen, Barry. 1998. Dental Hygiene and Nuclear War: How International Relations Looks from Economics. International Organization 52 (4):993–1012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fordham, Benjamin O. 1998. Building the Cold War Consensus: The Political Economy of U.S. National Security Policy, 1949–51. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frieden, Jeffry A. 1991. Invested Interests: The Politics of National Economic Policies in a World of Global Finance. International Organization 45 (4):425–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frieden, Jeffry A., and Rogowski, Ronald. 1996. The Impact of the International Economy on National Policies: An Analytical Overview. In Internationalization and Domestic Politics, edited by Keohane, Robert O. and Milner, Helen V., 25–47. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrett, Geoffrey. 2000. The Causes of Globalization. Comparative Political Studies 33 (6-7):941–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gartzke, Erik, and Rohner, Dominic. 2010. To Conquer or Compel: War, Peace and Economic Development. Working Paper 412. Zurich, Switzerland: Department of Economics, University of Zurich.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossman, Gene M., and Helpman, Elhanan. 1994. Protection for Sale. American Economic Review 84 (4):833–50.Google Scholar
Hall, Richard L., and Deardorff, Alan V.. 2006. Lobbying as Legislative Subsidy. American Political Science Review 100 (1):69–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Richard L., and Wayman, Frank W.. 1990. Buying Time: Moneyed Interest and the Mobilization of Bias in Congressional Committees. American Political Science Review 84 (3):797–820.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hegre, Havard. 2000. Development and the Liberal Peace: What Does It Take to Be a Trading State? Journal of Peace Research 37 (1):5–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hojnacki, Marie, and Kimball, David. 1999. The Who and How of Organizations' Lobbying Strategies in Committee. Journal of Politics 61 (4):999–1024.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirshner, Jonathan. 2007. Appeasing Bankers: Financial Caution on the Road to War. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kobrin, Stephen J. 2005a. Technological Determinism, Globalization and the Multinational Firm. In What Is International Business, edited by Buckley, Peter, 38–56. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Kobrin, Stephen J. 2005b. The Determinants of Liberalization of FDI Policy in Developing Countries: A Cross-Sectional Analysis, 1992–2001. Transnational Corporations 14 (1):67–104.Google Scholar
Kolodko, Grzegorz. 2001. Globalisation and Transformation: Illusions and Reality. Technical Paper 176. Paris: Development Center, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).Google Scholar
Langbein, Laura I., and Lotwis, Mark A.. 1990. The Political Efficacy of Lobbying and Money: Gun Control in the U.S. House, 1986. Legislative Studies Quarterly 15 (3):413–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Hoon, and Mitchell, Sara McLaughlin. 2012. Foreign Direct Investment and Territorial Disputes. Journal of Conflict Resolution 56 (4):675–703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lind, Jennifer. 2011. Democratization and Stability in East Asia. International Studies Quarterly 55 (2):409–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lind, Jennifer, and Press, Daryl. 2013. The Strategic Logic of Energy Mercantilism. Unpublished manuscript, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.Google Scholar
Lobell, Steven E. 2003. The Challenge of Hegemony: Grand Strategy, Trade, and Domestic Politics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowery, David. 2007. Why Do Organized Interests Lobby? A Multi-Goal, Multi-Context Theory of Lobbying. Polity 39 (1):29–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowery, David, and Gray, Virginia. 2004. A Neopluralist Perspective on Research on Organized Interests. Political Research Quarterly 57 (1):164–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansfield, Edward D., and Milner, Helen V.. 2010. Regime Type, Veto Points, and Preferential Trading Arrangements. Stanford Journal of International Law 46 (2):219–42.Google Scholar
Mansfield, Edward D., and Pollins, Brian M.. 2001. The Study of Interdependence and Conflict: Recent Advances, Open Questions, and Directions for Future Research. Journal of Conflict Resolution 45 (6):834–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, Patrick J. 2009. The Invisible Hand of Peace: Capitalism, the War Machine, and International Relations Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mearsheimer, John J., and Walt, Stephen M.. 2007. The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Milner, Helen V. 1988. Trading Places: Industries for Free Trade. World Politics 40 (3):350–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milner, Helen V. 1989. Resisting Protectionism: Global Industries and the Politics of International Trade. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Milner, Helen V., and Rosendorff, B. Peter. 1996. Trade Negotiations, Information and Domestic Politics: The Role of Domestic Groups. Economics and Politics 8 (2):145–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narizny, Kevin. 2007. The Political Economy of Grand Strategy. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Papayoanou, Paul. 1996. Interdependence, Institutions, and the Balance of Power: Britain, Germany, and World War I. International Security 20 (4):42–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, Dennis P., and Shapiro, Robert Y.. 1991. Business Political Power: The Case of Taxation. American Political Science Review 85 (3):851–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogowski, Ronald. 1989. Commerce and Coalitions: How Trade Affects Domestic Political Alignments. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rosecrance, Richard. 1986. The Rise of the Trading State: Commerce and Conquest in the Modern World. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Rosecrance, Richard. 1999. The Rise of the Virtual State: Wealth and Power in the Coming Century. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Rosecrance, Richard, and Thompson, Peter. 2003. Trade, Foreign Investment, and Security. Annual Review of Political Science 6 (1):377–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Tierney, John T.. 1986. Organized Interests and American Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Smith, Mark A. 2000. American Business and Political Power: Public Opinion, Elections, and Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snyder, Jack. 1991. Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Solingen, Etel. 1998. Regional Orders at Century's Dawn: Global and Domestic Influences on Grand Strategy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Solingen, Etel. 2001. Mapping Internationalization: Domestic and Regional Impacts. International Studies Quarterly 45 (4):517–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solingen, Etel. 2007. Pax Asiatica Versus Bella Levantina: The Foundations of War and Peace in East Asia and the Middle East. American Political Science Review 101 (4):757–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staley, Eugene. 1935. War and the Private Investor: A Study in the Relations of International Politics and International Private Investment. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Stigler, George J. 1971. The Theory of Economic Regulation. Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science 2 (1):3–21.Google Scholar
Stigler, George J. 1974. Free Riders and Collective Action: An Appendix to Theories of Economic Regulation. Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science 5 (2):359–65.Google Scholar
Thorne, Christopher. 1973. The Limits of Foreign Policy: The West, the League and the Far Eastern Crisis of 1931–1933. New York: Putnam.Google Scholar
Trubowitz, Peter. 1998. Defining the National Interest: Conflict and Change in American Foreign Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Truman, David B. 1951. The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Vernon, Raymond. 1992. Transnational Corporations: Where Are They Coming from, Where Are They Headed? Transnational Corporations 1 (2):7–35.Google Scholar
World Bank. 1997. Global Economic Prospects and the Developing Countries, 1997. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.Google Scholar