ABSTRACT

The production and export of avocados in Chile have experienced explosive growth since the 1990s, severely threatening local communities’ human right to water. Despite contentious activities and protest, there has been scant reaction from public authorities and policy continues to strongly support avocado exports. We explain this by analyzing the role that business plays in water politics and the different means it has to counter the search for political influence by aggrieved communities. We argue that the outcome is a product of the multilevel deployment of business power. Based on quantitative and qualitative data, we use process tracing methods to unveil business power mechanisms at the local, national and international levels and their connections. We contribute to the cross-fertilization of business power analyses in comparative political economy and environmental politics, and to the understanding of the under-researched multilevel dynamics of business power and the related politics of scale shift.

摘要

自 1990 年代以来，智利鳄梨的生产和出口经历了爆炸性增长，严重威胁了当地社区的饮水权。尽管有争议的活动和抗议，但公共当局的反应很少，政策继续大力支持鳄梨出口。我们通过分析企业在水政治中所扮演的角色以及企业应对受害社区寻求政治影响的不同手段来解释这一点。我们认为，结果是商业权力多层次部署的产物。基于定量和定性数据，我们使用流程追踪方法揭示地方、国家和国际层面的商业权力机制及其联系。