Doctoral Degrees (Political Science)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Political Science) by browse.metadata.advisor "Grimm, Sven"

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    The role of MNCs in China and Brazil’s foreign policy towards developing states in Africa
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Tukic, Nusa; Grimm, Sven; Van der Westhuizen, Janis; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Political Science.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: While most international political economy (IPE) literature has been concerned with the relations between multinational corporations (MNCs) and the host states in which they operate, this study sought to contribute to general state-MNC relations by looking at the other dimension, namely home state-MNC relations. In addition, while home state-MNC literature mostly focuses on how this relationship plays out in the domestic realm; this study focused on home state-MNC relations in foreign policy. A further limitation was to only look at home state-MNC relations in the developing world by using China and Brazil as the main case studies, and their interaction with MNCs in foreign policy towards developing states from Africa. The research design was comparative, using the most similar system case selections. The cases (China and Brazil) were selected based on several similarity indicators: a history of a strong state apparatus and a history of dirigisme in relation to the economy. This implies the pivotal role of the state not only in domestic but also international relations, particularly regarding MNCs internationalisation. In addition, China and Brazil’s similarities in other respects: emerging power status, internationalisation of MNCs and economic expansion from 1990 onwards (particularly in Africa), move towards capitalist economy and aspects of late industrialisation; provided for interesting contextualisations. Given China and Brazil’s history of state control over all aspect of society, politics and economics, this study wanted to investigate how the home state interacts with its MNCs in foreign policy, based on the assumption that globalisation forces have caused the state’s role to decline as outlined by Stopford and Strange (1991). This was done through the application of the theoretical framework derived from (mainly) the works of Strange (1988, 1996) and Weiss (1998), which stipulates that the locus of power in home state-MNC relations is dependent on the control of four pillars of structural power (credit, security, production, and knowledge). In other words, whoever controls majority of the pillars has the leverage to ask certain favours from the other. This extends to the attribution of specific roles to MNCs by their home state in its foreign policy. In the case of equal control of the pillars, it is argued that the relationship will be one of governed interdependence. Based on China’s political and institutional background of being a communist state, it was expected that the locus of control, despite the forces of globalisation and increasing move towards open market principles, will remain in the hands of the home state. For Brazil, the assumption was that the home state-MNC relationship will be one of interdependence, based on the history of protectionism. However, the findings of this study are counterintuitive, as it was found that in the case of China, the home state-MNC relationship is one of conditioned governed interdependence; and in the case of Brazil, it is one of dependence of MNCs on the home state. In relation to roles attributed to MNCs in the home states foreign policy, it was found that the types of roles in the case of China and Brazil are the same: national champion, wealth creator, market access pioneer, and positive image creator through the performance of South-South Development Cooperation activities. In the case of China, it was found that the home state can attach a certain role to its MNCs which is furthermore dependent on five indicators of MNC importance: time, sector, region, events around region, and MNC ownership structure. However, based on the MNCs control of two of the four pillars of structural power (production and knowledge) they have operational flexibility in deciding if they want to adhere to the attributed role, therefore the home state- MNC relation is one of conditioned governed interdependence. In the case of Brazil, it was found that the role attributed to MNCs by their home state depends on one indicator: the political or economic importance of the region/country of MNCs operation for Brazil’s foreign policy. In addition, based on the dependence of MNCs on their home state, Brazilian MNCs are more likely to adhere to that role than their Chinese counterparts, indicating that they have limited operational flexibility as their relationship towards the home state is one of dependence.