Book Review: Kate MacDonald, The Politics of Global Supply Chains
| Author | Ashley McLachlan-Bent |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929916673763 |
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsGeneral Politics |
132 Political Studies Review 15 (1)
The book draws most of its examples from
the US and the UK and could not be more
timely. The spectacle of the US presidential
primaries provides extraordinary opportunities
to think through and test the ideas presented
here with evidence coming to us in real time.
The schema necessary for the easy reception of
some of the more eyebrow-raising comments
of a few presidential candidates will likely keep
political communications researchers busy for
years to come. Lilleker does a good job of
reminding us about the central role which emo-
tions and values play in such receptivity and
how campaign communication relies on gener-
ating cognitive dissonance. The discussion of
hot cognition and deep cognition is particularly
useful for helping to explain how emotional
channels can provoke thinking that disrupts the
expected pathways of a person’s schema.
No one for a very long time has believed that
voters are rational assessors of competing
political messages (arguably, the idea that they
are died with Plato’s scathing criticisms of
rhetoric), but there are certainly pockets of nor-
mative political theory where the hope remains
alive that they could be. The critical spectator
who sees (and hears) through the message
seems to be someone who has avoided the
entrapment of their own schema. Lilleker’s
analysis shows instead that strategic communi-
cation is the vehicle by which this happens in
mass democracy.
The final chapter attempts to model political
cognition and it is best to read this as a direction
for future research, since it is merely a sketch.
The framework is promising but impossible to
develop sufficiently in about eight pages.
Nevertheless, it may be expanded to become
something quite sophisticated. Overall, this is
an innovative contribution to the literature on
political communication. Fans of The West
Wing, however, will find one error (p. 74) per-
haps unforgiveable: Jeff Bartlett? Jed Bartlet, as
every committed viewer knows.
Russell Bentley
(University of Southampton)
© The Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929916676950
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev016
The Politics of Global Supply Chains by Kate
MacDonald. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014. 254pp.,
£17.99 (p/b), ISBN 9780745661711
The study of supply chains is important as
nations liberalise trade and seek new export
opportunities. The power and vulnerabilities of
actors that operate within supply chains has been
studied in depth, including on account of the rise
of ethical consumerism and corporate social
responsibility movements. Despite multidiscipli-
nary analysis of trade liberalisation and its impact
on producers, the development of an understand-
ing of the political aspects inherent in the global
supply chain has largely been overlooked. In The
Politics of Global Supply Chains, Kate
MacDonald sets out to fill this gap by consider-
ing how various state and non-state actors exert
political influence in global supply chains and
how this is reshaping transnational power and
governance within global politics.
By focusing on one case study, the author
analyses in impressive depth the way power is
exercised in the coffee and garment sectors in
Nicaragua. Nicaragua is a strong example; as a
country reliant on the export of consumer goods
and commodities, it has high levels of political
and labour organisation but experiences signifi-
cant poverty. MacDonald examines the roles,
motivations and vulnerabilities of the actors
within the supply chains of these goods and, by
doing so, identifies the governance deficits that
exist at each of the levels.
Given that trade in coffee and garments has
not improved the conditions of workers in
Nicaragua, the book examines the challenges
facing regulatory systems to simultaneously
protect workers and industries and promote
national economic interests. Global supply
chains function beyond a national regulatory
system, which creates difficulties for effective
governance and accountability. As part of this,
non-state actors become politicised, and impor-
tant questions about the role and function of
government are raised. The author argues that
the politicisation of global supply chains repre-
sents an opportunity to achieve better public
governance and accountability, and she points
to the need for coordination and support within
supply chains by state governance actors as a
way of achieving it.
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