Transnational corporations, competition and monopoly

The contribution of TNC's to development has continued to be debated both by orthodox economists and by Marxists. When looking at the voluminous literature on the subject, it is striking how much similarity there is between positions adopted by the main protagonists from both sides of the ideological divide. The purpose of this paper is to explore these similarities and to suggest why they occur. This is followed by an attempt to develop an alternative approach to the analysis of TNC's based on the internationalisation of capital, which is more comprehensive and more consistent with the available empirical evidence. The arguments that have been put forward in this paper involve a dynamic approach to the analysis of the internationalisation of capital and its impact on host developing countries, and although snapshots can be partially illuminating they cannot provide a moving picture of the processes at work. In order to capture such processes, this paper will interpret the development of the Latin American automobile industry, particularily the cases of Argentina and Brazil.