1) Bibliographic Data
Sklair, Leslie and Peter T. Robbins (2002) “Global Capitalism and
Major Corporations from the Third World.” Third World Quarterly,
V. 23-1, Feb.:81-100
2) Question(s) addressed by the author and working arguments
To demonstrate that the systematic study of major corporations from the
Third World is important for debates about the national bourgeoisie,
comprador capitalism and the controversy that currently surrounds the
contentious concepts of the developmental state and globalization.
Third World Capitalist Classes are globalizing, and this phenomena can
be studied from the stand point of the global system theory; that is
based on the concept of transnational practices that cross state boundaries
but do not necessarily originate with state agencies of actors. These
practices operate in tree spheres: the economic, the political and the
cultural ideological. The whole is the global system. What the theory
sets out to demonstrate is that the dominant forces of global capitalism
are the dominant forces on the global system. The building blocks of
the theory are the transnational corporation (TNC), the transnational
practices, the transnational capitalist class and the culture ideology
of consumerism.
3) Conceptual references to transnational-transnationalism
Transnational Capitalist class (TCC) can be analytically divided into
four main fractions:
i) TNC executives
ii) Globalising burocrats
iii) globalising politicians and professionals
iv) consumerist elites.
TCC is transnational or global in the following aspects:
a) The economic interests of its members are increasingly globally linked
rather that exclusively local and national in origin
b) The TCC seeks to exert economic control in the workplace, political
control in domestic and international politics, and cultural-ideology
control in every day life through specific forms of global competitive
and consumerist rhetoric and practice
c) Members of the TCC have outward-oriented global rather than inward-oriented
local perspectives on the most economic, politic and culture-ideology
issues
d) Members of the TCC tend to share similar lifestyles, particularly
patterns of higher education and consumption of luxury goods and service.
e) Members of the TCC seek to project images of themselves as citizens
of the world as well as of their places of birth (cosmopolitan business
tycoons)
The concept of the TCC implies that there is one central inner circle
that makes system-wide decisions, and that it connects with members of
the TCC in each locality, country and region
4) Conclusions or Final Remarks
Large corporations from the third world are not restricted to certain
countries, regions or industries. State ownership of these corporations
is in decline Their activities are beginning to approximate those of
the large corporations of the First World. Therefore, it appears that
major TW Corporations are globalizing. This provides the basis for
the hypothesis that Third World Capitalist Classes are also globalizing
and that the Global System Theory is the most dynamic model for understanding
this changes.
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