"Legitimizing the Voice of Business within Intergovernmental Organizations: Comparing the International Chamber of Commerce with the International Organization of Employers"

Since the end of the First World War, the ICC and the IOE have claimed to be the legitimate spokespersons of business within multilateral arenas (mainly in the League of Nations, the ILO, and the UN). This contribution will examine the processes by which these claims and the defense of these interests have developed in the interwar period until right after the Second World War. Adopting a socio-historical perspective, together with a paired-comparison of the two “false twin organizations” in the representation of the private commercial sector is especially interesting to question the now commonly admitted view that business ought to be part of global governance institutions.