| This dissertation describes and explicates the construction of a transnational antitrust regime. This regime is an international system of rules, norms, and institutions that define and govern permissible market competition in a globalizing economy. Given the frequent failure to create a global antitrust code over the last fifty years, much of the extant literature in law and economics considers international antitrust to be “an impossible dream.” Relying on a more versatile concept of global governance, I offer a novel historical-sociological account of transnational market order.; The regime has developed from the 1940s through the 1990s. It has two components: convergence of national competition systems and international cooperation among antitrust regulators. Early in the era, both convergence and cooperation were highly limited. Conflict due to the extraterritorial application of American antitrust law was common. In the 1980s and 1990s, however, convergence and cooperation grew in tandem. Many societies have come to share similar beliefs toward antitrust. National antitrust rules have not been harmonized, yet states have established institutions designed to promote convergence and manage diversity. At the same time, states have increasingly coordinated the regulation of transnational mergers, cartels and alliances.; The development of the regime is associated with the liberalization of national markets. However, the agent behind the regime is a transnational network of antitrust elites—especially national antitrust regulators and corporate antitrust counselors. Through deliberation, policy research, and political advocacy, this community governs competition by facilitating convergence and cooperation. The network is based more on informal professional ties than on formal institutional arrangements. Actors in this professional community are socialized to hold particular antitrust beliefs regarding market competition and government regulation. By distinguishing between “pro-competitive” and “anti-competitive” market behavior, the network is central in constructing international norms of competition. The broadly neo-liberal orientation of the network suggests that the network has facilitated globalization subject to specific concerns over abuses of market power. Through the regime, the network is creating the institutional foundations for modern global capitalism. |
