Theorizing Full Transparency within Legislative Consultaion Procedures

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research grade: 10 Berlin School of Economics (IMB Institute of Management Berlin) course: Global Governance language: English abstract: With the breakthrough in information technology since the early 1990s pivoting in a maturingglobal information network accessible for a broad mass of consumers called the internet thepower information relays to its owner and the means and speed of its diffusion have beenrevolutionized. In this context looking at various societal actors the issue of equal access toand transparency of information triggered not only broad scientific research efforts but againplaced the spotlight of public scrutiny on the issue of transparency of information in societaleconomical and governmental mechanisms of decision making and business conduct. Civilsociety bombarding multinational enterprises with postulations to disclose supply chainlocations and their labor and environmental practices especially abroad conveys that not doingso bears certain if not even very lucrative advantages for such businesses. Withgovernmental legislation setting the stage for businesses` profitability in many realmsexerting selfish influence on national politics holds great allurement for business itself.Fronting supranational joint efforts like the establishment of the OECD Financial Action TaskForce1 of the G-7 member states or the European Transparency Initiative2 business has eversince the beginning of nation states found its way to interact with the mechanism ultimatelyaffecting their profitability in a regulatory or constraining way. Looking back at the financialcrisis of 2008 it becomes clear that nowadays business making use of their involvement inshaping national policies has not declined at all. The multinational Cash for Clunkers lawand the failure of the nutrition facts traffic light law in Germany prove conclusive examplesof how a passive