Arena Expansion and the Transnationalization of Business Advocacy
Chapter 5 shifts the focus from soft law’s effects on great powers to its impact on influential business groups. It argues that by expanding arenas of contestation to the transnational level, soft law transforms business representation as well as individual industry associations. The chapter’s empirical focus is on banking regulation from the 1980s to the 2000s. Much of the literature on transnational banking standards centers on the role of industry associations and, in particular, on the Institute of International Finance. In this chapter, the authors explain the rise of direct industry participation in and influence over Basel-based standard setting. They show that the orientation and priorities of the IIF as well as its membership and internal structure were deeply conditioned by 1980s international soft law. The IIF’s transformation subsequently set off a series of changes to the ecology of financial industry associations and the politics of financial regulation.