Corporate Power and the Politics of Consensus in Environmental Debates, 1976-1990

Melissa Aronczyk, Rutgers University

This article offers an explanation for the resurgence of corporate political power following the institutionalization of the public interest activist movement in the 1970s-80s. The rise of citizen groups focused on countering the political power of business was spurred by a number of factors, including a more educated and expansive middle class and their changing attitudes toward political participation; the transformation of legal and political structures in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal; and an increase in environmental and health disasters, brought to a nationalizing audience by the news media and television. In the environmental realm, citizen groups were especially effective. Political, legal and social opportunities for environmental advocacy had multiplied as civil society and government concern over environmental hazards accelerated throughout the 1960s. Over the next ten years, business worked steadily to ensure that its policies and practices were undertaken in the name of the public interest. Rather than adapt its practices to conform to emerging environmental standards, however, business took a different tack, adapting the meaning of the public and the public interest to align these with its own self-interested objectives. Drawing on historical archives, business correspondence and other material culture, this article argues that business actors made their work meaningful to environmentally minded publics by capturing democratic values: a commitment to pluralism in political debate; citizen participation in consensus-finding around public policy; and transparency in the political process. They amplified these values through a range of strategies, many borrowed from their antagonistic counterparts: grassroots organizing and coalition building, “cooperative oligopolies” via interlocking directorates; revolving door hiring among industry groups; and appeals to human values and emotions. By the late 1980s, business would develop a structure of social and political legitimacy to offset the gains made by environmental movements in the courts and among the public.

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 Presented in Session 244. Cultural Constitution of Politics