Billionaires in World Politics

by Peter Hägel

Overview

Billionaires in World Politics shows how the privatization of politics assumes a new dimension when billionaires wield power in world politics, which requires a re-thinking of individual agency in International Relations. Structural changes (globalization, neoliberalism, competition states, and global governance) have generated new opportunities for individuals to become extremely rich and to engage in politics across borders. The political agency of billionaires is being conceptualized in terms of capacities, goals, and power, which is contingent upon the specific political field a billionaire is trying to enter. Six case studies explore the power of billionaires in their pursuit of security, wealth, and esteem. The chapter on security analyzes Raj Rajaratnam's relationship to the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka, and Sheldon Adelson's transnational electioneering in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Regarding the economy, the book studies how the Koch brothers' political protection of fossil fuels is affecting climate change mitigation, and how Rupert Murdoch's opinion-shaping is valorizing conservatism across borders. The chapter on social entrepreneurship and esteem examines the role of Bill Gates in the governance of global health and George Soros's attempts to build open societies as a 'stateless statesman'. An analytical conclusion evaluates the prior findings in order to address three major questions: Is it more appropriate to see billionaires as 'super-actors', or as a global 'super-class'? What is the relative power of billionaires within the international system? What does the power of billionaires mean for the liberal norms of legitimate political order?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192594167
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	12/07/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Peter Hägel is an Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the American University of Paris. In addition to a number of articles in journals, he is the author of the entries on 'Global Governance', 'Sovereignty', and 'Transnational Actors' in Oxford Bibliographies Online.

Table of Contents

• 1: Introduction
• 2: Individuals in International Relations
• 3: The Structural Context for Billionaires
• 4: The Political Agency of Billionaires
• 5: Security
• 6: Economy
• 7: Social Entrepreneurship
• 8: Analytical Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"In the fascinating study Billionaires in World Politics (2020), Peter Hägel discusses the billionaires on the international stage." — Luuk van Middelaar, NRC Handelsblad, NRC Handelsblad

"Various monographic works followed the civic engagements of billionaires, but there was a lack of a survey that envisions them as a new category of full-fledged actors on the international scene. This is what Peter Hägel proposes in a beautiful comparative survey built on the analysis of six of these "ultra-rich" who mobilized their wealth to weigh "from the outside" and "from abroad" on the political competition of a country, the course of a regime crisis, or the definition of the priorities of international organizations." — Antoine Vauchez, CNRS, La Vie des Idees

"Explores the power and influence of billionaires in international politics, examining the nature of their agency as transnational non-state actors and the structural constraints and opportunities that shape their behavior." — Journal of Economic Literature (Volume 59, no. 1)

From the Publisher