Browsing by Subject "Foreign direct investment"

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    Democratic politics in an age of globalization: The impact of political skills and institutions on barriers to foreign direct investment.
    (2010-08) Owen, Erica Lynn
    Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a driving force behind globalization; in the last 20 years, growth in FDI flows has outpaced growth in international trade. Although developed democracies are generally open to FDI, levels of restrictions vary within and across countries because governments restrict some industries and not others. I argue that variation in barriers to FDI in developed democracies is a function of the interaction of economic and political skills and electoral rules. Because the entry of foreign firms through FDI increases competition in the market of the host country, the distributional consequences of FDI determine who supports and opposes barriers to investment. I argue that this market competition tends to set up political competition between economically skilled and unskilled labor, because inward FDI tends to benefit the former over the latter. However, the distribution of economic skills alone cannot explain the emergence of barriers to FDI. Groups that are politically skilled, that is, informed and organized, are more likely to achieve favorable policy outcomes. I expect that when economically unskilled workers are highly politically skilled, we are likely to see more barriers to investment than when they are not politically skilled. Barriers to investment are also shaped by electoral rules, which determine the extent to which politicians will cater to narrow versus broad interests. I expect that proportional representation systems will be more open to FDI overall and also that political skills play a smaller role in proportional representation systems than majoritarian ones. In analyses of barriers at the industry-level in the United States, as well overall openness cross-nationally, I find strong support for the hypothesis that the effect of economic skill on barriers to FDI depends on political skills. Furthermore, I find that countries with proportional representation have both lower overall levels of protection, and also a smaller role for political skills than majoritarian systems.
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    State asemblage in the Republic of Georgia.
    (2010-12) Schueth, Samuel J.
    States of the former communist block have not followed a single, linear path of transition from "plan to market." In the westernmost states, entering the European Union propelled the transformation of communist political and economic institutions. Further east, former Soviet Union (FSU) states exhibit lesser degrees of political pluralism and privatization without a European trajectory of transition. Yet, since its 2003 "Rose Revolution," Georgia's radical departure from the post-Soviet partial-reform status quo has presented important challenges path-dependency arguments about political and economic transition and development. Georgia's transformation exposes a major gap in a literature that has failed to ask how states may rapidly gain new governmental and developmental capacities. To understand Georgia's political and economic transformation after the Rose Revolution this dissertation analyzes the legal reforms and governmental tactics used over 2003-2007 to successfully attract high rates of inward foreign investment (Chapter 2) and to more than triple central government tax revenue (Chapter 3). I use assemblage theory, drawing on concepts developed by Deleuze and Guattari (e.g. 1987) and Delanda (2002; 2006) among others, to analyze the emergence of these new state capacities. Exegesis of an assemblage theory of the state is the focus of Chapter 4. A final, fifth chapter concludes.