The Ideological Theory of Power - Assignment Example

RЕ СОRРОRАTIОN TОО РОWЕRFUL? (Course Instructor) (University Affiliation) (Student’s Name) Date QUESTION 1: Apply in ideological theory of power discuss why corporation is too powerful and presenting as a threat to affect civil society? a) The ideological theory of power states that there is a limited amount of power in any society such that the power can only be held by one party at a time. Karl Max identified two groups the working class and the ruling class as the basis for the ideological theory of power where the capitalists in the corporate world are the custodians of all the power and use this to exploit the working class. The reasons for the oppression of the civil society as well as attacks on the dissenting voices vary (Tiwana, 2015). These oppressions are caused by not only the state apparatus but also the rich business owners who have strong ties to the political class. The major driver of closing down of the civil society space is the capture of power indirectly by economic elites through the funding of the political class who will always allow them to call the shots. This explains the laws that oppress the majority of the working class through retrogressive laws that are aimed to protect the corporate in the society. The civil society is the voice of the society is the voice of the society but can only thrive in an environment where their voice is heard. The corporate capitalists can curtail their efforts by influencing decisions through the ruling elite to make decisions that would drown the dissenting voices (Tiwana, 2015). b) The structure of any given society is determined by the economic structure in the society. So in a case where the economy rests in the hands of the capitalists, then the rest of the society will act in accordance in accordance to the values of the capitals (Daldal, 2014). This is because the capitalists dictate to the ruling class since they own the production systems and that means they would control the workers who are the source of the civil society movements and this explain why power is concentrated in the corporate world since they influence policies to favor their operations (Kuttner, 2011). Marxists argue that the ruling class uses their influence to socialize the civil society into believing what goes against the wishes of the rest of the society in what is known as the ruling class ideology. In this case, the working class and the civil society do not usually realize that they have accepted the ideology of the economic class as their own allowing the morals and the values of the corporate world to be accepted in the society and ensuring that the ruling class continues to rule (Kuttner, 2011). These values in most cases do not champion for the common good of the society but are usually tailored towards protecting the interests of the corporate world whose interests are safeguarded by the ruling class that they help to keep in the thrones of power. QUESTION 2: Apply in neoliberalism theory discuss why corporation is too powerful and presenting as a threat to affect global economies? (List 2 point with 250 words each) a) Neoliberalism theory began in Chile in 1973 when a democratically elected government was toppled with the help of the Americans. At the center of a neoliberal system lie self interest, individualism, the segregation of ethical values and the economic affairs. As the world gradually undergoes globalization, this is accompanied by a series of criticism of the forms of globalization which are thought to be majorly led by the corporate world. As the corporate institutions become multinationals and become larger, their influences and interest go far accordingly (Boundless, 2016). The ability to influence and own a huge number of the media companies and it’s therefore very difficult to be able to debate in the public the ideas as well as the notions that are pursued by the corporate entities in the society. A number of choices that corporations take to attain profits can affect people all over the world and in some cases takes place in a fatal way. This explains why at this era of globalization, the marginalized in the society are becoming frustrated and the motive of the multinational companies and the corporate led globalization has been met with an increasing amount of resistances and protests. People are questioning how corporations get so much power in the first place as well as the impact of giving corporations the same right as individuals in 1886 in the United States of America (Boundless, 2016). b) It has been argued many times that corporate multinationals exert a lot of pressure on the local and the international governments to come up with policies that benefit the corporations rather than protecting the rights of the local people. This goes against the principles of globalization where these multinational corporations are meant to ensure that these institutions provide affordable goods and services that could not be produced in the domestic market (Siddiqui, 2012). Economic globalization according to the Neo liberalism theory of power can lead to the exploitation of the labor force, as well as expatriating of important resources away from the host country to foreign countries and this is largely thought to be the reason being the huge dependency on the wealthy nations by the developing nations. in some cases, the corporate entities use their influence on the domestic politics to lead to the unfair distribution of resources where land for instance that could have been used for food production are used for cash crop production which end up in the foreign market leaving the domestic population in abject state of poverty (Siddiqui, 2012). This goes against the spirit in which the advocates of globalization had envisioned, where the shortcomings of production in the domestic markets are compensated by the multinational companies. QUESTION 3: Apply in ideological theory of power discuss why corporation is too powerful and presenting as a threat to affect environment? (List 2 point with 250 words each) a) The centralization of corporations in many instances as crucial players has greatly influence the impact of their activities on the environment. The ideological theories of power asserts that in many cases, corporate lobbies have pushed for the enactment of policies that greatly benefits them and lets them harm the environment and work away with it. Other political and ideological processes too and other misguided projects have in many ways employed corporations to perform the real tasks that are damaging to the environment (Choi and Kang, 2014). The capitalists dictate to the ruling class since they own the factors of production this explain why power is concentrated in the corporate world since they influence policies to favor their operations. Some have argued that it is not the fault of the corporations in any way, nut in a number of cases, these companies influence for the projects that end up damaging the environment as this is in their interests to have the have the projects in place for purposes of monetary benefits. In the latter years of the 1990s attention was drawn to the United Nations project to get collaboration in development projects. This however was a lot of criticism for the involvement of corporate institutions that are known to have greatly contributed some of the most known environmental issues that we see today and allowing these types of companies that attempt to repair their images while not actually tackling the problems that are associated with environmental degradation (Choi and Kang, 2014). b) There have been ideological arguments that the managers of corporations are necessarily conscious of environmental degradation. There has also been a competing argument between the need to have development and have a sustainable development at the same time. There has however been a stronger appeal towards development where more infrastructural development, mining, buildings and setting up of factories are taking precedence (Gouldson and Bebbington, 2007). The reason that makes corporate companies are getting stronger than the environment according to the theory of ideology of power is that economic growth has had a stronger appeal to the population as compared to the need to conserve the environment (Gouldson and Bebbington, 2007). This explains why today, environmental lobbyists are still struggling to get attention of the world on the need and the importance of having a sustainable environmental protection. given a choice between the environment and monetary benefits, Most people would rather go for corporate that development as compared to the environment and many environmentalist have argued that the reason why environmental protection is hard to sell is because it benefits are long-term and do not come instantly as compared to the economic growth that is brought about by corporate actions. that explains why most companies still embrace the production of goods and services that do not conserve the environment, better still, theses explains why the Kyoto accord is yet to be implemented by many countries (Gouldson and Bebbington, 2007). It is because that the interests of many nations lie in their ability to have more influence in the corporate world. Bibliography Boundless 2016, Multinational corporations. Available at: https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/global-stratification-and-inequality-8/stratification-in-the-world-system-69/multinational-corporations-407-3428/ (Accessed: 20 October 2016). Choi, J.H and Kang, G.D 2014, ‘A study on antecedents of relationship strength in a B2B environment: Focusing on export manufacturing corporations’. International Commerce and Information Review, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 3–34. doi: 10.15798/kaici.16.4.201409.3. Daldal, A 2014, ‘Power and ideology in Michel Foucault and Antonio Gramsci: A comparative analysis’. Review of History and Political Science, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 149–167. Gouldson, A and Bebbington, J 2007, ‘Corporations and the governance of environmental risk’. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 4–20. doi: 10.1068/c0614j. Kuttner, R 2011, The theory of power. Available at: http://prospect.org/article/theory-power (Accessed: 20 October 2016). Martinez, E and Garcia, A n.d., CorpWatch: What is Neoliberalism? Available at: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376 (Accessed: 20 October 2016). Siddiqui, K 2012, ‘Developing countries’ experience with Neoliberalism and Globalisation’. Research in Applied Economics, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 12-37. doi: 10.5296/rae.v4i4.2878. Tiwana, M 2015, Challenging threats to civil society from powerful business entities righting finance. Available at: http://www.rightingfinance.org/?p=1321 (Accessed: 20 October 2016). Read More