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I find it telling and amusing that the justification never goes the other way. Businesses never force countries to implement democratic or human rights reforms,

I find it telling and amusing that the justification never goes the other way. Businesses never force countries to implement democratic or human rights reforms, even though the belief they are linked implies that the most efficient way to improve business conditions might sometimes be to demand political reform rather than form new business relationships.

dcolkitt 7y ago
I wouldn't say this is the case. Business almost always does consider property rights and rule of law when making overseas investments. Both of those factors are strongly linked to human rights and democracy. In general, the countries with the worst human rights abuses (North Korea, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Eritrea) tend to be the ones with the most anti-business policies. The correlation between the country-level ranking of political freedom and civil liberties[0], and their World Bank ease of doing business rating is over 50%[1]. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_in_the_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_in_the_World [1]https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/media/Annual-Reports/English/DB2019-report_web-version.pdf https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/media/An...
- aeturnum 7y ago
  Do you know of any examples of a particular business insisting an authoritarian regime implement pro-democratic changes before opening a business venture?
  - dcolkitt 7y ago
    Even just drawing from American history, big business interests lobbied extremely hard for desegregation and civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. Even today in America, big business is one of the most powerful interests in favor of LGBT-rights[1]. Another example was big business' demands for reform in the apartheid regime of South Africa[2]. [1]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-19/the-u-s-chamber-of-commerce-has-a-coming-out-party https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-19/the-u-s-c... [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_principles

dcolkitt 7y ago

I wouldn't say this is the case. Business almost always does consider property rights and rule of law when making overseas investments. Both of those factors are strongly linked to human rights and democracy. In general, the countries with the worst human rights abuses (North Korea, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Eritrea) tend to be the ones with the most anti-business policies. The correlation between the country-level ranking of political freedom and civil liberties[0], and their World Bank ease of doing business rating is over 50%[1]. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_in_the_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_in_the_World [1]https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/media/Annual-Reports/English/DB2019-report_web-version.pdf https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/media/An...

aeturnum 7y ago
Do you know of any examples of a particular business insisting an authoritarian regime implement pro-democratic changes before opening a business venture?
- dcolkitt 7y ago
  Even just drawing from American history, big business interests lobbied extremely hard for desegregation and civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. Even today in America, big business is one of the most powerful interests in favor of LGBT-rights[1]. Another example was big business' demands for reform in the apartheid regime of South Africa[2]. [1]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-19/the-u-s-chamber-of-commerce-has-a-coming-out-party https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-19/the-u-s-c... [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_principles