Corporate Power and Social Policy: The Political Economy of the Transnational Tobacco Companies

Chris Holden; Kelley Lee

doi:10.1177/1468018109343638

Corporate Power and Social Policy: The Political Economy of the Transnational Tobacco Companies

Chris Holden, Kelley Lee

Social Policy and Social Work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Drawing on published tobacco document research and related sources, this article applies Farnsworth and Holden’s conceptual framework for the analysis of corporate power and corporate involvement in social policy (2006) to the transnational tobacco companies (TTCs). An assessment is made of TTCs’ structural power, the impact upon their structural position of tobacco control (TC) policies, and their use of agency power. The analysis suggests that, as a result of the growth of TC policies from the 1950s onwards, TTCs have had to rely on political agency to pursue their interests and attempt to reassert their structural position. The collapse of the Eastern bloc and the liberalization of East Asian economies presented new structural opportunities for TTCs in the 1980s and 1990s, but the development of globally coordinated TC policies facilitated by the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has the potential to constrain these.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	328-354
Number of pages	26
Journal	Global Social Policy
Volume	9
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1468018109343638
Publication status	Published - Dec 2009

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title = "Corporate Power and Social Policy: The Political Economy of the Transnational Tobacco Companies ",

abstract = "Drawing on published tobacco document research and related sources, this article applies Farnsworth and Holden{\textquoteright}s conceptual framework for the analysis of corporate power and corporate involvement in social policy (2006) to the transnational tobacco companies (TTCs). An assessment is made of TTCs{\textquoteright} structural power, the impact upon their structural position of tobacco control (TC) policies, and their use of agency power. The analysis suggests that, as a result of the growth of TC policies from the 1950s onwards, TTCs have had to rely on political agency to pursue their interests and attempt to reassert their structural position. The collapse of the Eastern bloc and the liberalization of East Asian economies presented new structural opportunities for TTCs in the 1980s and 1990s, but the development of globally coordinated TC policies facilitated by the World Health Organization{\textquoteright}s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has the potential to constrain these. ",

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AB - Drawing on published tobacco document research and related sources, this article applies Farnsworth and Holden’s conceptual framework for the analysis of corporate power and corporate involvement in social policy (2006) to the transnational tobacco companies (TTCs). An assessment is made of TTCs’ structural power, the impact upon their structural position of tobacco control (TC) policies, and their use of agency power. The analysis suggests that, as a result of the growth of TC policies from the 1950s onwards, TTCs have had to rely on political agency to pursue their interests and attempt to reassert their structural position. The collapse of the Eastern bloc and the liberalization of East Asian economies presented new structural opportunities for TTCs in the 1980s and 1990s, but the development of globally coordinated TC policies facilitated by the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has the potential to constrain these.

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Corporate Power and Social Policy: The Political Economy of the Transnational Tobacco Companies

Abstract

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