frame any capital strikes

[Ostap]

Remarkably, the possibility that corporate giants won’t necessarily come to the rescue of American democracy isn’t the only, or even the primary, reason for that. Executives will frame any capital strikes — that is, threatening to relocate operations or to decline to invest in a particular place in order to pressure politicians — as business finally rising to its responsibilities as a major power in society.
source

Hello. What does "frame" mean in this sentence?

 

[Tarheel]

The way you frame a message is the way you present it.

(Hopefully, somebody will explain what capital strikes are.)

 

[Ostap]

(Hopefully, somebody will explain what capital strikes are.)

No need, it's explained in the quote between the dashes.

The way you frame a message is the way you present it.

So the structure of the sentence is:

To present (something) as (something else) ? (to present the strikes as business finally rising ....).

Correct?

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, the structure is 'frame something as something'.

Tarheel means 'present' in the sense of providing an explanation. The occurrence of capital strikes is attributed to business finally rising to its responsibilities as a major power in society.

 

[jutfrank]

I think you've got the meaning, Ostap, but there's an important sense that the pattern 'frame something as something' has that is to say that the person doing the framing is providing a way of understanding something in a particular way that may not be the true or only way of understanding it. In this case, the pattern is used to make it clear that the writer of the piece thinks it's not the right way of explaining things.

 

[probus]

(Hopefully, somebody will explain what capital strikes are.)

Doesn't the part between the dashes cover that adequately?

It's a phrase I'd never encountered before so I looked it up on Google Ngrams. Apparently, it came into fashion circa 1950 and faded away rapidly after about 1970.

Google Books Ngram Viewer

Google Books Ngram Viewer

books.google.com

 

[Tdol]

When businesses withhold investment to force a policy through, they are engaged in capital strikes.