Realities and experiences of multinational control - the Portuguese case

Abstract

Among the phenomena begot by the processus of the capitalist system internationalization, that of multinational enterprises (ME) assumes a very special relevance. The ME are indeed original economic agents without precedent in the history of the capitalist development. In our days everything happens as if an exchange economy among nations were overlapped by an economy between giant enterprises, the latter having a tendency to take the majority control of worldly economic activities. Thus it is the traditional scheme itself of the international economy, a scheme based in the notion of market and in the sovereignty of the nation-sate, that is contested. But it is also the notion of capitalist enterprise that appears deeply changed mainly because the ME have gradually turned into powerful supernational centers of decision, the power of which becomes to be a serious risk even for the autonomy of their own nation-states. In a general way, the practice of ME in foreign countries is a permanent challenge to the sovereignty of those countries. In certain cases, not very difficult to check up, the ME may play a very active part in the reversibility of recent processes of reinforcing the public sector. Nevertheless several countries are presently trying to control foreign direct investments, including those from ME. The Portuguese case is analysed in the final part of this article.