When Corporations Can't Rule the World.

• Author: Ayres, Ed

Publications like David Korten's 1996 book When Corporations Rule the World and Olin Robinson's 1997 commentary The Decline of the Nation State, as well as some of the observations in Hilary French's just published Vanishing Borders, document a sea change in the balance of geopolitical power over the past two decades, with more and more of the driving force shifting from nations to multinational corporations. You've probably seen the widely quoted fact--now several years old--that of the world's 100 largest economic entities, 49 are nations and 51 are corporations. But even as the juggernaut of corporate influence over our lives gains momentum, an amazing thing has happened: some of the most muscular companies, while easily brushing off (or buying off) the controls of governments, appear to have been stopped in their tracks by small citizens' groups. We have documented some of these occurrences in Environmental Intelligence and in Curtis Runyan's article "The Third Force" (November/December 1999), and by now there have been enough of them to form what appears to be a significant trend:

* In 1999, the Gerber Corporation--one of the world's largest makers of baby foods--received a letter from a Greenpeace activist asking what steps it had taken to assure that its products contained no genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Within a month, the company announced that it was eliminating genetically modified corn and soy from its products.

* Monsanto Corporation--one of the world's largest agricultural chemical and seed companies--found itself being assailed by European farm activists and development agencies about its "terminator seed" technology, which prevents replanting from a previous harvest, thereby forcing farmers to buy new seed (along with any corresponding pesticides) from Monsanto every year. In August 1999, Monsanto announced that it will not commercialize the seed.

* General Motors--perhaps the world's most dominant company for most of the past half-century-found itself heavily criticized by environmentalists for its participation in the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), a lobbying group that has attempted to undermine international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This spring, in response to its critics, GM gave up on the GCC and dropped out see Environmental Intelligence, page 10).

* Royal Dutch Shell--another member of the GCC--found itself being criticized by a phalanx of climate scientists, environmentalists, and...