Business and Democracy Around the World

Catalog description

How does business shape democracy? One may be tempted to respond to this question by focusing on the money that business steers into political campaigns. Yet this approach elides a broader understanding of the influence of business on democratic self-government. This course will examine the direct participation of business in politics and public governance through private responses to "government failures" in the provision of goods and services. Through this involvement, business reshapes how democracy works, and we will study several mechanisms by which it does this including distributive public policy and reconceiving the citizen as a customer. Our scope is global; both individual countries and international efforts will be examined. Students will gain important analytic skills by employing frameworks from economics, political science and related disciplines, and will develop a richer understanding of the role that business plays in our political life.