sociology of law

Corporate Law Perspective

How do organizations influence government? • If you were a cigarette company, what kinds of laws would you want

to see passed?

• If you were a big cattle rancher, what kinds of laws would you want to see passed?

• If you were Apple computers, what kinds of laws would you want to see passed?

How do organizations influence government? • Barley, Stephen R. 2010. “Building an Institutional Field to Corral a

Government: A Case to Set an Agenda for Organization Studies.” Organization Studies 31(6):777–805.

• RQ: how have corporations used organizations to influence the US government?

• Methods: Historical sociology = a method of identifying social change using primary and secondary historical sources (mixed methods)

How do organizations influence government? • “My thesis is this: during the 1970s and 1980s American corporations

built, partially intentionally and partially unintentionally, an institutional field for shaping public policy. By institutional field, I mean a set of organizational populations and the relations that embed members of these populations into a social system or network with a purpose.”

How do organizations influence government?

How do organizations influence government? • On the far left stand corporations, the ultimate source of influence, as

well as peak organizations, trade associations and foundations. On the far right are Congress and the Administration, the primary targets of influence, as well as the media and ordinary citizens, which are secondary and tertiary targets respectively. In between lie Washington law firms, lobbying firms, public relations firms, ad hoc organizations, and think tanks, all of which act as agents for the organizations on the left.

How do organizations influence government? Relationships that define the network of organizations

• Money flows from and among the organizations on the left and terminates with the organizations in the center

• Lobbying links organizations on the left (principals) and in the middle (agents) to Congress and the Administration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=70&v=b4jdcdlquF0

• Opportunities to testify, inform, and advertise chart the information flows that link corporations, trade associations, and think tanks to Congress

• The flow of personnel is the only bi-directional relationship. Corporate executives go to work in government positions, and vice-versa (ie “the revolving door”

• voting for presidents and members of Congress, is the only mechanism that average citizens have for entering the network

How do organizations influence government? Why did multinational corporations construct this organizational field?

• Divide the labor of corralling government • actors plays unique roles • Why do players have different positions on a sports team?

• Amplify the voices of their constituencies • “Everyone knows a choirs’ tune is stronger and carries further than that of a

soloist”

• to shield concealed interests - funders and founders • Employing law and lobbying firms, ad hoc organizations, PR firms, and think

tanks makes it more difficult to identify whose interests are in play

Resistance to corporate lobbies?

• In building an institutional field to influence the government, the business community drew on innovations pioneered by labor and citizens groups. … One might, therefore, argue that unions and citizens groups are embedded in an analogously structured field.

• Evidence suggests, however, that the field in which unions and citizens groups operate is less powerful, less prominent, less well organized, less well funded and less well informed.

Resistance to corporate lobbies?

• When Clinton attempted to reform the health care system to provide universal coverage, Robert Reich was Secretary of Labor. Reich (2007) has written that the reform failed in large measure because there was no institutional field that Clinton could mobilize:

• ‘Despite it being introduced in a Democratic Congress, Clinton’s legislation went nowhere. That was partly because the proposal was too complicated and bureaucratic. But it also died because it had no broad- based organization behind it. While corporations vigorously lobbied against it, Clinton had no vehicle to mobilize public support.’ (Reich 2007: 165)

Resistance to corporate lobbies?

• Reich also noted that, in comparison to business, labor’s institutional muscle has atrophied over time:

• ‘In 2005 the AFL-CIO had only six paid lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Of the one hundred organizations that spent the most on lobbying that year, the US Chamber of Commerce headed the list; the AFL-CIO ranked seventy-fourth. Most public interest groups — advocating such causes as environmental protection, child welfare, or human rights — did not even make the list.’ (Reich 2007: 133)

How do organizations influence government? In-class activity: work with partner, upload responses individually on blackboard

Pick an issue: digital rights, fracking, charter schools, marijuana legalization and sale, price of pharmaceutical medicines, or any issue that corporations lobby

1. What are the corporate lobbies involved in the issue?

2. Who are some of their member companies?

3. What are some of the corporate lobby group’s legal and political goals in the issue?

4. Are there any organizations working to oppose the corporate lobbies and their think tanks?

5. How do they work to oppose the corporate lobbies and what do they advocate instead?