ABSTRACT
The multinational company today occupies a frontal position in capitalist world development. Reference has already been made to the preoccupation in the capitalist realm with rates of economic growth. In the post-war era, multinationals have emerged as growth leaders, sustaining rates of expansion which have often exceeded the collective rates of national economic growth in the core of capitalist nations. Foreign direct investment (FD I) has yielded higher rates of profit than standard home investment. Thus have capitalist relations of production progressively overridden the territoriality of nation-states. During the depression years of the later 1970s and early 1980s, moreover, this process has been aided and abetted (albeit unwittingly) by the actions of such states as they have sought to restrict or slow down the penetration of overseas manufactured goods to protect domestic production capacity, at the same time making available locational incentives for overseas investors in an effort to maximize output growth.
