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Business Politics and Policy Making in Contemporary Latin America. Ben Ross Schneider Department of Political Science Northwestern University. Overview. Portfolio framework for analyzing business politics
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Business Politics and Policy Making in Contemporary Latin America Ben Ross SchneiderDepartment of Political ScienceNorthwestern University
Overview • Portfolio framework for analyzing business politics • Comparative examination of patterns of business politics in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico • Assessment of how various types of policy encourage different political responses from business
Portfolio analysis of business investment in politics • Business associations • Legislative lobbying • Elections and campaign contributions • Personal and policy networks • Corruption
Political activities of associations • Visibility in media • Direct contacts with policy makers • Little sustained contact with politicians and parties • Representation on consultative or policy councils
Legislative lobbying • New form of business politics • Little empirical research • Narrow, fragmented influence
Elections and Campaign Finance • Legal framework greatly restricts private sector funding • Yet millions of dollars flow from business to politicians • Contributions may not buy much influence -- low reelection rate -- narrow impact, collective weakness -- insurance contributions
Negotiating Trade Agreements • Chile, Mexico, and Colombia relied on “cuarto al lado” model of consultation between business and government • Business participation mediated by associations • In Brazil and Argentina negotiations for Mercosur excluded business
Conclusions • Root causes of variation in patterns of business politics usually found in prior government actions • Patterns of business politics are fairly stable over time, yet still subject to change through policy