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Business Politics and Policy Making in Contemporary Latin America. Overview. Portfolio framework for analyzing business politics. Comparative examination of patterns of business politics in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.
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Business Politics and Policy Making in Contemporary Latin America
Overview • Portfolio framework for analyzing business politics. • Comparative examination of patterns of business politics in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. • Assessment of how various types of policy encourage different political responses from business.
Portfolio analysis of business investment in politics • Business associations • Legislative lobbying • Elections and campaign contributions • Personal and policy networks • Corruption
Political activities of associations • Visibility in media • Direct contacts with policy makers • Little sustained contact with politicians and parties • Representation on consultative or policy councils
Legislative lobbying • New form of business politics • Little empirical research • Narrow, fragmented influence
Elections and Campaign Finance • Legal framework greatly restricts private sector funding. • Yet millions of dollars flow from business to politicians. • Contributions may not buy much influence -- low reelection rate -- narrow impact, collective weakness -- insurance contributions
Negotiating Trade Agreements • Chile, Mexico, and Colombia relied on “cuarto al lado” model of consultation between business and government. • Business participation mediated by associations. • In Brazil and Argentina negotiations for Mercosur excluded business.
Conclusions • Root causes of variation in patterns of business politics usually found in prior government actions. • Patterns of business politics are fairly stable over time, yet still subject to change through policy.