Beaten paths towards the transnational corporate elite

The transnationalization of economic activities has fundamentally altered the world. One of the consequences that has intrigued scholars is the formation of a transnational corporate elite. While the literature tends to focus on the topology of the transnational board interlock network, little is known about its driving mechanisms. This article asks the question: what are the trajectories that corporate elites follow in driving the expansion of this network? To answer this, the authors employ a novel approach that models the transnationalization of elites using their board appointment sequences. The findings show that there are six transnationalization trajectories corporate elites follow to expand the network. The authors argue that while the transnational elite network appears as a global social structure, its generating mechanisms are regionally organized. This corroborates earlier findings on the fragmentation of the global network of corporate control, but also provides insights into how this network was shaped over time.

From Integrated to Fragmented Elites. The Core of Swiss Elite Networks 1910-2015

This article focuses on historical elite dynamics and investigates elites’ integration over time. We describe the changing relations and composition of the central circles in Swiss elite networks at seven benchmark years between 1910 and 2015 by relying on 22,262 elite individuals tied to 2587 organisations among eight key sectors, and identify for each year the most connected core of individuals. We explore network cohesion and sectoral bridging of the elite core and find that it moved from being a unitary corporate elite following family-based elite reproduction, before 1945, to an integrated corporatist elite involved in educational and professional-based reproduction, between the 1950s and 1980s, before fragmenting into a loose group in the 1990s onwards. The core was always dominated by business and their forms of legitimacy but, at times of crisis to the hegemony of corporate elites, elite circles expanded and included individuals with delegated forms of power, such as politicians and unionists, detaining more university credentials, and less transnational connections and elite family ties.

Corporate Responses to COVID-19: A Nonmarket Strategy Approach

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented threat to the survival of U.S. firms. Prior studies show that firms use market strategies such as layoffs and pay cuts to cope with organizational crises. Little is known about how firms engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activities (CPA) during crises. This study focuses on how America’s largest publicly traded firms use these two nonmarket strategies to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Results suggest that public firms actively engaged in both CSR and CPA after the outbreak. The preliminary estimation shows that firms listed in Russell 1000 have donated or pledged over $3.9 billion to corporate philanthropy and invested over 2.1 billion in observed political donations and lobbying in Congress in the early pandemic. The marked variation in corporate nonmarket strategies could be partially attributed to corporate elites’ political ideology, political accountability, and perceived COVID-19 risk.

Tunisia's Peripheral Cities: Marginalization and Protest Politics in a Democratizing Country

This article investigates Tunisia's southern "periphery within the periphery," drawing on original interviews to examine marginalization and center-periphery relations in the country since the 2011 revolution. Comparisons are drawn between the informal economy of cross-border smuggling in Ben Guerdane and the jobless youth of Tataouine being left behind as corporate elites and companies become wealthy from the natural resources extracted from the area. This had led to an embrace of "unruly" protest politics, rebelling against the postrevolutionary political establishment. A trend toward disillusionment with democracy might be on the horizon for the marginalized youth in the south, exacerbating regional cleavages and posing a potential crisis for Tunisia's democratization.

Rhetorical strategies of counter-journalism: How American YouTubers are challenging dominant media election narratives

The standards and practices in journalism that best serve democratic deliberation remain a matter of intense scrutiny in the digital age. The United States has a long history of journalists exposing self-interested behaviors of political or corporate elites with investigative journalism. With online media, journalistic practices encompass fact-checking against a variety of sources, and countering the claims of other journalists from competing outlets. This article aims at delimiting the rhetorical properties of an emerging genre of YouTube counter-journalism. The study reports on a rhetorical and eristic analysis of the main patterns of countering in a sample of videos posted on YouTube on the subject of the US presidential campaign in spring 2020. The analysis reveals some ways in which YouTube journalists break down the dominant media narratives and present counterclaims and critiques, which is usually accompanied by fact-checking, showcasing evidence and providing alternative explanations or counterarguments. However, counter-journalism is not free from eristic devices that may misrepresent political issues for the subscribers.

Corporate Elites and American Politics

The book begins by introducing the Silicon Valley 150+, the 175 biggest public and private firms in Silicon Valley, and discusses the intent of the book: to examine the political engagement of those individuals who founded and are CEOs of the SV150+ firms. This chapter introduces the main themes of the book, positioning the book against literatures covering business lobbying, political donations by firms, philanthropy and public policy, and the formation of new advocacy organizations. The chapter also includes three important lists: (1) the SV150+ firm list—the list of Silicon Valley firms the book studies; (2) the SV150+ CEO list—the list of CEOs the book studies; and (3) the SV150+ founder list—the list of founders the book studies. The chapter concludes with an overview of the chapters to come.

Conclusion

Chapter 7 puts the book’s findings into context by exploring what they have to teach us about the role of the new corporate elite in American politics. The chapter outlines the approach taken in the book—namely, to document the engagement of Silicon Valley corporate elites through their firms, as individuals, and via associative forms. The chapter reviews the conclusions of the study, including the following: (1) the Silicon Valley corporate landscape is diverse when it comes to political engagement; (2) there is a top tier among the Silicon Valley firms and elites when it comes to expenditures on lobbying and elections; (3) most elites skew liberal even if their firms do not, and the philanthropic spending of elites supports a new liberal agenda. The chapter concludes by discussing limitations of this project and opportunities for future work.

Silicon Valley Firms in American Politics

Chapter 2 examines the firm-level form of corporate elite political engagement. It asks: Just how active are Silicon Valley companies in American (mostly national) politics? And what issues do they work on? The answers to these questions provide a context for founder and CEO activities (explored in later chapters). To be sure, these are important questions in and of themselves. But we ask them primarily to gather information that will allow us to address other questions about the behavior of Silicon Valley corporate elites. Among these questions are: Do politically active leaders come from politically active companies? Do Silicon Valley corporate leaders act like their companies—for example, do they address the same issues? Are corporate leaders simply extensions of the companies they run, or are they “free agents” who inject their own, personal views into the political process? Or are they a mixture of both of these? Chapter 2 presents data that help address these questions and others.

Associative Action

Chapter 6 turns to another form of associative leader engagement. Specifically, Chapter 6 examines the rise of organizations founded by SV150+ CEOs and founders. Special attention is paid to a new organizational form: the corporate social advocacy organization (CSAO), which we define as a political organization, founded directly by corporate elites, that pursues a narrow issue or public interest policy agenda, and seeks to involve the general public in its advocacy work (as members or supporters). The chapter uncovers nineteen groups founded by SV150+ elites, among them several CSAOs. Chapter 6 examines where these groups came from, what they do, and how they connect with other forms of SV150+ political activity.

Silicon Valley Leaders in Federal Elections

Chapter 3 examines one individual form of corporate elite political engagement—campaign giving. The chapter undertakes an in-depth look at the itemized federal campaign contributions of Silicon Valley CEOs and founders during the 2015–2016 federal election cycle. Relying upon publicly available Federal Election Commission data on individual contributions, the chapter answers questions including: How prevalent is campaign giving among the corporate elites on our SV150+ CEO and founder lists? Do these corporate elites give more or less than other sets of corporate elites? In their giving, are SV150+ CEOs and founders as Democratic as previous studies suggest they are? Are they indeed a new financial constituency of the Democratic Party? Are Silicon Valley corporate elites simply furthering their firms’ interests when they give, or are they “free agents” following their own, personal preferences?