The rise and fall of private advocacy forums from 1945 to the twenty-first century

Abstract How did “globalist” elites organize themselves politically to defend their agenda, that is, the imposition of global free trade and investment flows and the protection of markets from sovereign decisions? And are the forms of organization they deployed still effective in the changing political economy of the twenty-first century? Building on business historical scholarship and drawing on the archives of business interest associations and key business elites, this article traces the rise and fall of private advocacy forums from the aftermath of the Second World War to the present. Our findings show that while such elite forums proliferated in the late twentieth century, their influence was historically contingent. Weakened by their own redundancy and by competition from a new class of billionaire CEOs, these forums also undermined traditional business interest associations, fueling backlash and contributing to the globalist faction’s inability to build broader alliances and lasting political consensus.