This seminar course explores the political power of business from an international and comparative perspective. We examine the ways that business acquires and exerts political power and the ways politics shapes business power. We draw from international and comparative political economy, global governance studies, and related disciplines such as management and sociology. Topics of discussion include the role of public authority in governing business behaviour, the formation of business interests, business' instrumental, structural and discursive power, civil society activism toward business, corporate social responsibility, transnational private governance, and economic crises.