Quiet Politics and the Power of Business: New Perspectives in an Era of Noisy Politics*

• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Date: 01 March 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0032329220985749
• Subject Matter: Introduction to the Special Issue

https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329220985749

Politics & Society

2021, Vol. 49(1) 3 –16

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0032329220985749

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Introduction to the Special Issue

Quiet Politics and the Power

of Business: New Perspectives

in an Era of Noisy Politics*

Glenn Morgan

University of Bristol

Christian Lyhne Ibsen

University of Copenhagen

Abstract

This introduction summarizes the main contributions of this special issue titled “Quiet

Politics and the Power of Business: New Perspectives in an Era of Noisy Politics.”

The four articles in the issue use and extend Culpepper’s influential concept of “quiet

politics” according to which business is able to shape policies and regulations when

issues are of low salience to the public and politicians. The issue takes Culpepper’s

analysis further in ways that respond to the rise of noisy politics over the last few

years, often associated with new strident forms of left- and right-wing populism.

Three contributions are made. First, the articles show that salience is not an inherent

property of a policy area but is socially constructed. Second, a variety of strategies

are described that business uses when trying to keep politics quiet. Third, strategies

are affected by the structure of business, which varies across types of capitalism.

Future research can use these insights to extend our understanding of the limits,

strategies, and dynamics of quiet politics across political economies.

Keywords

quiet politics, business power, policymaking

Corresponding Author:

Christian Lyhne Ibsen, FAOS/Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade

5, Copenhagen K, 1353, Denmark.

Email: cli@faos.dk

*This is one of six articles that constitute a special issue titled “Quiet Politics and the Power of Business:

New Perspectives in an Era of Noisy Politics.” Some of the articles in the issue were first presented

at the SASE annual meeting at the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in June 2017, organized by

Glenn Morgan, Christoph Houman Ellersgaard, Stéphanie Ginalski, and Christian Lyhne Ibsen, and at

a workshop at the University of Bristol funded by the School of Management and the Political Studies

Association section on Labour Movements in June 2018, organized by Glenn Morgan, Christian Lyhne

Ibsen, and Magnus Feldmann.

985749PASXXX10.1177/0032329220985749Politics & SocietyMorgan and Ibsen

research-article2021