Business and Government - Methods and Practice

This volume reviews current debates on the role of business in politics and it assesses emerging methodological approaches to its study. The book brings together leading scholars to assess various qualitative and quantitative methods, network analysis, historical context and positive rational choice modeling, and detailed research case studies in the study of Business-Government relations.Businesses have developed an increasingly sophisticated appreciation of the policy process, as well as an ability to develop complex strategies to influence it over the last 30 years. This volume reviews current debates on the role of business in politics and it assesses emerging methodological approaches to its study. The book brings together qualitative and quantitative methods, network analysis, historical context and positive rational choice modeling, and detailed research case studies. There is coverage of the environment in which business operates, including state, regional and international institutional frameworks. The internal organizational structure of business interests is considered along with the range of strategies used to influence the policy process. The book explores what policy-makers demand and what business supplies to the policy process. The key role of the firm as a political actor is emphasized, leading to a call for a theoretically informed political economy of the firm.