This book set out to investigate the importance of business to contemporary developments in social policy. Business influence, it has argued, has increased at all levels since the 1980s. At the international level, big business has lobbied for the establishment of welfare states that underpin competitiveness and productivity. International governmental organisations (IGOs) such as the World Bank, regional blocs such as the EU, and national governments, have responded favourably to these arguments. Globalisation has acted as a reminder to governments of the importance of policies that assist businesses if they are to be successful in attracting new investment in future. This message has been reinforced by the international activities of business, which has organised more freely and with more coherence under globalisation. Within the UK, central government policies and the activities of organised business have meant that, since the 1980s, the voice of business has grown progressively stronger at the national and local levels. Business today helps to shape social policy debate, manages welfare services, and is more likely to be involved in the direct delivery of social provision than in the past. A summary of the key developments of forms of influence are mapped out in Table 8.1. These developments are discussed under five summary statements, followed by a discussion of their implications for present and future social policy.

1. Globalisation has increased corporate structural power and this, in turn, has had an impact on the capacity of the UK to formulate and deliver social policy

Structural power has been fuelled by the processes of globalisation, especially since the late 1970s. Most importantly, the mobility of business has increased. States have dealt with this in different ways, but liberal states, such as the UK, have attempted to capture free-floating capital by competing on ‘lowest common denominator’ grounds through relatively inexpensive, lightly regulated labour, coupled with low corporate taxation. The UK has tended to go down this route by choice, although past policy decisions and historically low levels of indigenous investment have reinforced structural constraints which include relatively high dependence on mobile capital. In addition, the relative power of labour has fallen due to the introduction of lighter regulations, higher levels of unemployment and a declining trade union movement over the period.