Corporate Hegemony in Remission: The Pharmaceutical Industry and the HIV/AIDS crisis.

It is widely believed that multinational corporations (MNCs) control the international political economy. This is not surprising given that various MNCs have annual sales exceeding the GDP of many countries and that MNCs spend billions of dollars shaping cultural preferences and political outcomes across the globe. Has economic power truly enabled multinationals to achieve political hegemony? On the one hand, realists argue that states remain preeminent in the international system. On the other hand, globalists assert that multinationals have become all powerful. In this paper, which represents part of a larger research project examining the power balance between corporations and states, I address this question in two ways. First, I present an analytical framework highlighting factors that shape the state versus multinational balance. Second, I present a case study that looks at the power of states versus MNCs during the HIV/AIDS crisis (when large pharmaceuticals confronted developing countries). My paper refutes the globalist argument by showing that the developed countries triumphed even though tangible factors would have led one to expect otherwise. Nevertheless, my study does not fully support the realists because it also demonstrates the importance of international norms, framing discourses, and transnational civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]