The United States, multinational corporations and the politics of globalization in the 1970s

This dissertation examines debates among Americans about the role and impact of multinational corporations on the foreign relations of the United States during the long 1970s. The decade saw significant changes in the international economy and the United States' place in it. Both champions and critics of multinational corporations during this time used them as metonyms for contemporary globalization. Hence, this study treats discussions in the United States about the impact of multinational corporations and foreign direct investment on economic welfare, political accountability, social responsibility, ethics and national security as expressions of Americans' concerns and anxieties about their place in an increasingly competitive global economy. Amidst growing calls for greater governmental regulation of multinational business, executives of multinational corporations and sympathetic politicians organized to more clearly articulate and defend the case for neoliberal globalism. This entailed creating a political consensus for continued government support for the internationalization of American business. The United States' ability to foster a liberal regime for foreign direct investment during the 1970s was therefore dependent upon a coalition of globalist businessmen and politicians. Hence, rather than viewing the state and local processes as entities in tension with globalization, this dissertation argues that the two in fact mutually constituted each other.