Companies/transnational corporations, whose number, size, and power are growing, are increasingly important, yet often overlooked and marginalised in the discipline of International Relations. Their power and influence extend beyond the economic sphere. Through broader political action, companies/transnational corporations pursue their own interests, thus often acting contrary to the principles of public good, social justice, and sustainable development. These business actors are increasingly involved in democratic processes and other forms of governance, both within states and in international relations more broadly. This Master's thesis examines the power of business actors as political actors in international relations and situates their power within the broader social, political, and political-economic context of world politics and the global capitalist system. The aim of the Master's thesis is to develop as comprehensive a theoretical-analytical framework as possible as a tool for analysing corporate power in international relations. The Master's thesis builds upon the approach of analysing the three dimensions of corporate power as proposed by Doris Fuchs, and further extends and refines this approach by embedding the analysis within the broader socio-political and political-economic context. To achieve this, it draws on Gramscian/Neo-Gramscian theory, and through the concept of hegemony, positions companies/transnational corporations within the broader structure of the world order and the global capitalist system. Using neoliberalism as a connecting element, it defines the establishment, maintenance, and eventual decline of transnational neoliberal hegemony and the role of corporate power within it. The Master's thesis seeks theoretical and analytical synergies between the approaches, synthesises and develops a new, expanded, actor-adjusted framework for understanding the role and power of companies/transnational corporations in international relations.
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