In the Hurricane's Eye

by Vernon, Raymond

• ISBN13: 9780674004245
• ISBN10: 0674004248
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-16
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

The world's multinational enterprises face a spell of rough weather, political economist Ray Vernon argues, not only from the host countries in which they have established their subsidiaries, but also from their home countries. Such enterprises--a few thousand in number, including Microsoft, Toyota, IBM, Siemens, Samsung, and others--now generate about half of the world's industrial output and half of the world's foreign trade; so any change in the relatively benign climate in which they have operated over the past decade will create serious tensions in international economic relations.The warnings of such a change are already here. In the United States, interests such as labor are increasingly hostile to what they see as the costs and uncertainties of an open economy. In Europe, those who want to preserve the social safety net and those who feel that the net must be dismantled are increasingly at odds. In Japan, the talk of "hollowing out" takes on a new urgency as the country's "lifetime employment" practices are threatened and as public and private institutions are subjected to unaccustomed stress. The tendency of multinationals in different countries to find common cause in open markets, strong patents and trademarks, and international technical standards has been viewed as a loss of national sovereignty and a weakening of the nation-state system, producing hostile reactions in home countries.The challenge for policy makers, Vernon argues, is to bridge the quite different regimes of the multinational enterprise and the nation-state. Both have a major role to play, and yet must make basic changes in their practices and policies to accommodate each other.

Author Biography

Raymond Vernon was Professor of International Affairs, Emeritus, Harvard University

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Setting the Context
Multinational Enterprises in a System of Nation-States	1	(29)
A Rough Take-off for the Multinationals	3	(4)
Calibrating the Multinationals' Importance	7	(6)
Multinationals' Behavior in International Markets	13	(14)
The Challenge: Accommodating Multinationals and Nation-States	27	(3)
Tensions in the Background
Conflict between Multinational Enterprises and Nation-States	30	(31)
The Nation-States' Struggle for Jobs	30	(7)
Taxing Multinationals	37	(9)
Security for the Nation-State	46	(7)
Conflicts of Jurisdiction, Culture, and Principle	53	(8)
Inside the Emerging Economies
High Stakes for Nation-States and Multinational Enterprises	61	(48)
Latin America	62	(17)
Fading Stars of Asia	79	(11)
Transitional Economies: From Hungary to China	90	(14)
India	104	(3)
Conclusions	107	(2)
Inside the Industrialized Economies
New Sources of Tension	109	(41)
The Case of Europe	109	(14)
The Case of the United States	123	(12)
The Case of Japan	135	(8)
Common Problems, Common Responses	143	(7)
The Struggle Over Open Markets
The Gathering Clouds	150	(28)
Ambivalence in the United States and Europe	151	(18)
Multinationals and the Struggle for Public Resources	169	(7)
Uncertainties in the International Political Climate	176	(2)
Righting the Balance
Possible Policy Responses	178	(43)
The Search for Global Principles	182	(6)
Bilateral Agreements	188	(6)
Industry-Centered Agreements	194	(10)
Regional Agreements	204	(3)
Possible New Initiatives	207	(9)
Unilateral Measures	216	(3)
Reprise	219	(2)
Notes	221	(37)
Index	258