Business conflict and global politics: The pharmaceutical industry and the global protection of intellectual property rights

Abstract

Most existing studies on the role of business in global governance conceive of business as one group acting vis-à-vis the state or NGOs. This article highlights that conflicts within the business community can be an important factor to explain policy outcomes. Drawing on the ‘business conflict school’ literature from International Relations, studies on the politics of markets developed in Economic Sociology, and work on corporate political strategy undertaken in Management Studies, it develops the concept of the governance-competitiveness nexus to theorize how economic competition translates into political competition. The article demonstrates how such an analytical angle can add to our understanding of the global governance of intellectual property rights for pharmaceuticals. It helps explain the motives of different actors to become politically involved at specific points in time and the policy goals they promoted. Thus, the concepts of business conflict and governance-competitiveness nexus help explain the agenda setting process on global pharmaceutical IP governance.

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