The scope of Transnational Private Regulation: The case study of the Multinational Monsanto in Argentina

Abstract

This article analyzes the Transnational Private Regulation (RPT) based on the experience of the multinational Monsanto in Argentina, from the crisis of 2001 to the sale of the Company in 2016, from the constructivist structuralism of Pierre Bourdieu. The case study focuses on the corporation’s interactions with regulatory agents in the national arena and the global public arena, considering the consequences of the extensive use of glyphosate on human health. Emerging actors in the global public field have not been enough to carry out the government’s own regulatory and control tasks. On the other hand, state bodies continued to be legitimate for corporate regulation, although the model based on the consensus of commodities required lax controls. Finally, the corporate social responsibility programs implemented by Monsanto are analyzed and their impact on the symbolic capital of the Nation-State. It is concluded that, within the framework of the RPT, the Argentine National State has empowered the corporation to construction of meaning in order to reproduce the income of foreign currency and face financial obligations, both in the national field and in the international field.