The Return of Public Regulation: States, Markets and the Resurgence of Local Content Requirements

• In Event: 602 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Paper Session. Global and Transnational Sociology: Alternative Perspectives

Abstract

The growing adoption of local content requirements – a government policy that necessitates foreign direct investment to involve a set percentage of local employment and sourcing – poses a challenge to the consensus in development theory that neoliberalism and private regulation governs the global economy. Drawing from document analysis and secondary scholarship, we test competing theoretical explanations for the recent re-implementation of this specific form of public regulation. We argue that the return of LCRs lies not only in local government’s long-standing recognition of the economic benefits of industrial policy but also requires attention to the changing configuration of the institutional norms of the global economy concerning the project of international development and to the critical role of an ambiguous regulatory environment. We conclude by showing that the resurgence of LCRs can be understood as a new collaborative form of governance of the global economy, where the state and market actors carry distinct and interrelated responsibilities for regulating and growing local economies.

Authors

• Zophia Yolande Edwards, Boston University

• Emily A. Barman, Boston University