ABSTRACT
The main IPE traditions tend to stress the role of states (nationalism), markets (liberalism) or class relations (Marxism). The result is often a somewhat disembodied rendering of global corporations as servants of national interests, market actors or vehicles for the capitalist class. This chapter focuses on global corporations as political actors in their own right. This is done in order to locate them in the IPE traditions, but also to cast them as the main political protagonists in conceptualising how and why globalisation potentially enables, constrains or transforms the sovereignty of states. With reference to the constructivist challenge to the main IPE traditions, the point is made that the political power global corporations wield should also be seen in terms of whether they are perceived as legitimately ‘in charge’. This is because the degree to which one particular IPE tradition or another is ideationally accepted as self-evident frames not just the manner in which globalisation is conceptualised, but also the political power global corporations are seen as being entitled to wield. This is demonstrated through adopting a ‘three faces of power’ approach to the political power of global corporations.
