The Political Legitimacy of the Virtuous Firm: A reflection on the complex relation between the practice of corporate social responsibility and political legitimacy.

Abstract

In thesis the question whether there are limits to the scope of CSR when taking into account the concept of political legitimacy is explored. In order to answer this question the concepts of CSR and political legitimacy are extensively discussed. Based on this discussion a reflection is made upon the possible problems that can arise when corporations practice CSR in both strong (democratic) states and weak (failed) states. The reflection shows that there are limits to the scope of CSR when taking into account the element of political legitimacy, for CSR becomes problematic when the care for public issues and the provision of public goods evolves into a form of (co-)government in which the company is wielding political power through her provision of public goods. At that moment the company transcends its role of a good fellow citizen and actually becomes an authority with political power. Since this exercise of power is neither mandated by the people nor checked, this is conflicts with the idea of democratic legitimacy. Apart from this conclusion several recommendations are made to improve the political legitimacy of CSR in the case of corporate (co-) government.