Business Conflict and American International Environmental Policy: Ozone, Climate and Biodiversity

　

Robert Falkner

　

Abstract

　

In Chapter 7, Robert Falkner argues that state-centric explanations of U.S. foreign environmental policy, which emphasize the autonomy of policy-makers, fail to get at the important role played by corporations. Falkner discusses various approaches to the study of corporate influence in foreign policy, and he presents evidence to demonstrate the role of businesses. He examines three environmental cases: ozone layer protection, climate change and biotechnology. The "business conflict" model, which emphasizes the fragmentation of, and conflicts within, the business sector, is contrasted with traditional pluralist and neo-Marxist or structuralist accounts of interest group politics. Falkner argues that a modified version of the business conflict model best explains corporate influence. It reflects the privileged position of business interests in environmental politics, but it avoids deterministic accounts of corporate dominance by emphasizing competition between opposing business interests. Political alliances between dominant business sectors and the state are identified as essential factors in the evolution of American foreign environmental policy. Most important, the nature of these alliances helps explain why American businesses can alternatively support international environmental regulation—as happened in the ozone case—and oppose such regulation—as evidenced by the response of businesses to international efforts to deal with the problems of climate change and biodiversity.