Insights into the nature and dynamics of business power

The case of Credit Unions in 1960s Argentina

Bibliographic Data

ID8419746
AuthorsAndrés Spognardi (0000-0002-3942-2644, Centre for Social Studies, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume66
Issue7
Pages1758-1784
Publication date2024-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBusiness History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-6791 • E-ISSN: 1743-7938
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00076791.2023.2202910
OpenAlexW4367606468
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited31

Most analyses of business power focus on the ability of firms to mobilise resources to influence policy or regulation. When examined through this lens, however, the case of Argentine Credit Unions (CUs) seems puzzling. Emerging from the margins of the economy, CUs withstood regulatory pressures from politically-connected banks, building an informal nationwide credit network with its own payment instruments and clearing services. A military dictatorship eventually restricted their informal operations, but subsequently granted them the right to offer services that had been hitherto monopolised by commercial banks. To explain this outcome, this article draws on a broader definition of power. Businesses’ ability to influence policy and regulation not only stems from their capacity to mobilise resources (instrumental power) but also from the socioeconomic impact of their activity (structural power). Argentine CUs’ endeavour shows that both dimensions of power are closely intertwined and highly dependent on contingent contextual factors

Business · Clearing · Democracy · Dictatorship · Economics · Market economy · Payment · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Cooperative Studies and Economics · Corporate Finance and Governance · Finance · Labor Movements and Unions

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