The political economy of multinational corporations and the international division of labour

Abstract

Developments in the post-war period and particularly in recent years’ present curious paradox in the political economy of multinational corporations and the international division of labor, so far as the Third World is concerned. On the one hand the tremendous growth of direct foreign investment by multinational corporations in the past 30 years has occurred chiefly among the developed countries themselves from the quantitative point of view, the periphery is becoming more and more marginalized in international direct investment. Moreover, the trend for Third World governments to become involved in public utilities and natural resource industries. the traditional areas of foreign investment in the Third World has now become so great that the question must be asked whether the MNCs will not soon be entirely displaced from these activities. Yet at the same time, the influence of multinational corporations over the pattern of development in Third World countries has in many respects, become much more powerful and all pervasive in a generation marked by political decolonization and the revolution of rising expectations.