United States Human Rights Policy: The Corporate Lobby

Human Rights Quarterly 41 (2019) 115–142

Posted: 14 Aug 2019

See all articles by Emilie Marie Hafner-Burton

Emilie Marie Hafner-Burton

UCSD School of Global Policy and Strategy

Heidi McNamara

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - Department of Political Science

Date Written: 2019

Abstract

Interest groups take an active stance on US human rights policy, with implications for countries around the world. Today, publicly traded companies are responsible for the majority of all lobbying dollars spent on the issue. This article leverages a unique dataset on congressional lobbying between 2007 and 2010 to map and explain variation in corporate lobbying on US human rights-related legislation. We substantiate and explain why large oil, defense, and technology companies have greater representation in terms of dollars spent trying to influence the US approach to managing human rights around the globe than any other lobbying group. Rarely do these companies publicly explain their interests or intentions when lobbying a policy. Moreover, congressional efforts to link human rights to other areas of legislation (such as trade) has incentivized certain firms — some likely without any direct interests in human rights — to weigh in on the human rights policymaking process. Whether this is good or bad news for the promotion of human rights around the world is an open — and pressing — question.

Keywords: Human Rights, Corporate Lobbying

Suggested Citation

Hafner-Burton, Emilie Marie and McNamara, Heidi, United States Human Rights Policy: The Corporate Lobby (2019). Human Rights Quarterly 41 (2019) 115–142, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3434563

Emilie Marie Hafner-Burton (Contact Author)

UCSD School of Global Policy and Strategy ( email )

9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0519
United States

HOME PAGE: http://gps.ucsd.edu/ehafner/

Heidi McNamara

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - Department of Political Science ( email )

9500 Gilman Drive
Code 0521
La Jolla, CA 92093-0521
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
315
PlumX Metrics