Is Corporate Social Responsibility a Constructivist Regime? Evidence from Latin America
2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 21; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13600820701201996
ISSN1469-798X
Autores Tópico(s)Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting
ResumoAbstract The paper argues that the emerging norms on corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be theorised as a constructivist regime, specifically a subset of private authority regimes—a transnational private legitimacy regime. The purpose of this regime is the transnational legitimation of globalised private accumulation strategies. It hypothesises that CSR acts as a framework of principles, norms and practices that enables communication, negotiation and contestation between civil society organisations (CSOs) and transnational corporations about the social impact of foreign investment. The regime inadvertently transforms the terrain on which businesses interact with other actors from one of power (where business was clearly dominant) to a terrain of (at least partial) legitimacy. This implies that actors that control “legitimacy resources”, such as CSOs, should see their negotiating power increase vis-à-vis businesses. The paper examines these conjectures through a case study of CSR promotion and advocacy in Latin America. Notes 1. A good example of just such a challenge to the motivations underlying CSR is the report issued by Christian Aid which takes issue with the CSR claims of Shell, British American Tobacco and Coca-Cola, claiming that CSR is used to mask the deleterious effects of investment and blunt attempts at government regulation. Christian Aid, Behind the Mask: The Real Face of Corporate Social Responsibility (London: Christian Aid, 2004), available: < http://www.christianaid.org.uk/indepth/0401csr/csr_behindthemask.pdf >. 2. A. Claire Cutler, Virginia Haufler and Tony Porter, “Private Authority in International Affairs” and Claire A. Cutler, Virginia Haufler and Porter Tony, “The Contours and Significance of Private Authority in International Affairs”, in A. Claire Cutler, Virginia Haufler and Tony Porter (eds.), Private Authority and International Affairs (New York: State University of New York Press, 1999), pp. 3–28 and pp. 333–376, respectively. 3. Peter Newell, “Citizenship, Accountability and Community: The Limits of the CSR Agenda”, International Affairs, Vol. 83, No. 3 (2005), pp. 543–544, 556. 4. Ibid., pp. 547–552; Kathryn Sikkink, “Codes of Conduct for Transnational Corporations: The Case of the WHO/UNICEF Code”, International Organization, Vol. 40, No. 4 (1986), p. 819; Virginia Haufler, “Globalization and Industry Self-regulation”, in Miles Kahler and David A. Lake (eds.), Governance in a Global Economy: Political Authority in Transition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), p. 250; Rob van Tulder and Ans Kolk, “Multinationality and Corporate Ethics: Codes of Conduct in the Sporting Goods Industry”, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 32, No. 2 (2001), pp. 278–280. 5. Wesley Cragg, “Prosperity and Business Ethics—The Case for Corporate Social Responsibility in the Americas”, FOCAL Policy Papers (Ottawa: Canadian Foundation for the Americas, 2001), p. 6. See also, Susan Ariel Aaronson and James T. Reeves, Corporate Responsibility in the Global Village: The Role of Public Policy, NPA Report No. 306 (Washington, DC: National Policy Association, 2002), p. 2. 6. Morten Ougaard, “Instituting the Power to Do Good? The CSR Movement and Global Governance”, in Christopher May (ed.), International Political Economy Yearbook, Vol. 15 (New York: Lynne Rienner, 2005), p. 234. 7. Virgina Haufler, A Public Role for the Private Sector: Industry Self-regulation in a Global Economy (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for Peace, 2001), pp. 12–14. 8. Paul Alexander Haslam, “The Corporate Social Responsibility System in Latin America and the Caribbean”, FOCAL Policy Papers (Ottawa: Canadian Foundation for the Americas, 2004), available: < http://www.focal.ca/images/pdf/csr_04.pdf >. 9. Ougaard, op. cit., p. 231. 10. Susan Strange, “Cave! Hic Dragones: A Critique of Regime Analysis”, International Organization, Vol. 36, No. 2 (1982), p. 487. 11. Michael Blowfield and Jedrej George Frynas, “Setting New Agendas: Critical Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Developing World”, International Affairs, Vol. 81, No. 3 (2005), pp. 512–513. For an attempt to address CSR as a constructivist regime, see Michael MacLeod, “Exploring and Explaining Global Business Behaviour: The Construction of Corporate Social Responsibility”, unpublished Paper presented at the International Studies Convention, Hawaii, 2005, pp. 18–19. 12. Cutler et al., “Private Authority in International Affairs”, op. cit.; A. Claire Cutler, Private Power and Global Authority: Transnational Merchant Law in the Global Political Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker, “The Emergence of Private Authority in the International System”, in Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker (eds.), The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). 13. Cutler et al., “Private Authority in International Affairs”, op. cit., pp. 10–12. 14. Ibid., p. 13. 15. Cutler et al., “The Contours and Significance”, op. cit., p. 339; Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 4. 16. Cutler, Private Power and Global Authority, op. cit., pp. 30–31. 17. Ronnie D. Lipschutz and Cathleen Fogel, “‘Regulation for the Rest of Us?’ Global Civil Society and the Privatization of Transnational Regulation”, in Hall and Biersteker (eds.), The Emergence of Private Authority, op. cit., p. 120. 18. Haufler, “Globalization and Industry Self-regulation”, op. cit., pp. 249–250. See Kathryn Sikkink, “Codes of Conduct for Transnational Corporations: The Case of the WHO/UNICEF Code”, International Organization, Vol. 40, No. 4 (1986), pp. 815–840. 19. Cutler et al., “The Contours and Significance”, op. cit., pp. 334–337. 20. Stephen D. Krasner, “Structural Causes and Regime Consequences: Regimes as Intervening Variables”, International Organization, Vol. 36, No 2 (1982), p. 185. 21. A notable exception is Cutler's focus on CSR as a type of legalisation functional for the neo-Gramscian “contemporary historical bloc”. A. Claire Cutler, “Transnational Business Civilization, Corporations, and the Privatization of Global Governance”, in Christopher May (ed.), Global Corporate Power, International Political Economy Yearbook, 15 (New York: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005), pp. 214–220. 24. Cutler et al., “The Contours and Significance”, op. cit., p. 362. 22. Cutler, Private Power, op. cit., pp. 43–44. 23. Haufler, “Self-regulation”, op. cit., p. 202. 25. Thomas M. Franck, The power of Legitimacy among Nations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 26. 26. Ibid., pp. 17–18. 27. Cutler, Private Power, op. cit., p. 31. 28. Cutler et al., “Private Authority in International Affairs”, op. cit., pp. 10–14. 29. Louis W. Pauly, “Global Markets, National Authority, Legitimation”, in Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker (eds.), The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance, op. cit., p. 87. Cutler does suggest that the development of private authority raises questions of legitimacy primarily due to lack of democratic accountability or public participation; Cutler, Private Power, op. cit., p. 28. Also, Lipshutz and Fogel note that regulatory initiatives can be motivated by normative issues of justice, equity and indigenous rights, and regulation by civil society is akin to Polanyi's double-movement at the transnational level. See Ronnie D. Lipschutz and Cathleen Fogel, “Regulation for the rest of us? Global Civil Society and the Privatization of transnational regulation”, in Hall and Biersteker, op. cit., pp. 133–136. 30. James O'Connor, “The Fiscal Crisis of the State Revisited: A Look at Economic Crisis and Reagan's Budget Policy”, Kapitalstate, Vol. 9 (1981), pp. 45–46. 31. 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Monica Araya, “Exploring Terra Incognita: Non-financial Reporting in Corporate Latin America”, Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Vol. 21 (Spring 2005), p. 25. 53. For an overview of the existing work on CSR in Latin America, see María Emilia Correa, Sharon Flynn and Alon Amit, Responsabilidad social corporativa en América Latina: una visión empresarial, Environment and Development Series, No. 85 (Santiago: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean); Estrella Peinado-Vara, Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin America and the Caribbean, Sustainable Development Department, Technical Papers Series PEF-102 (Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 2004), pp. 3–4; Vincular, “Situación de la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial en Latinoamérica y el Caribe” (Washington, DC: Vincular and Inter-American Development Bank, 2004), pp. 2–3, available: < http://www.iadb.org/csramericas/doc/vincular.pdf >. 54. On external influences, see Haslam, op. cit.; and Esben Rahbek Pedersen, “Guiding the Invisible Hand: The Role of Development Agencies in Driving Corporate Citizenship”, Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Vol. 20 (Winter 2005), pp. 77–91; Antonio Vives, “The Role of Multilateral Development Institutions in Fostering Corporate Social Responsibility”, Development, Vol. 47, No. 3 (2004), pp. 45–52. On internal influences see M. Cecilia Arruda, “Business Ethics in Latin America”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 16, No. 14 (1997), p. 1599; Jeanne M. Logsdon, Douglas E. Thomas and Harry J. Van Buren III, “Corporate Social Responsibility in Large Mexican Firms”, Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Vol. 21 (Spring 2006), p. 54. 55. Araya, op. cit., pp. 31–33. 56. Welford, op. cit., pp. 49–50. 57. Vives, “The Role of Multilateral”, op. cit., pp. 46–47. 58. 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KPMG, KPMG International Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2005 (Amsterdam: KPMG Global Sustainability Services, 2005), pp. 4, 38, available: < http://www.kpmg.com/Rut2000_prod/Documents/9/Survey2005.pdf >. 79. Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Proceedings of the 2nd Inter-American Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility (Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 2004), p. 81, available: < http://www.iadb.org/csramericas/2004/doc/deedstext_ENG.pdf >. 80. Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Proceedings of the 1st Inter-American Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility (Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 2003), p. 23, available: < http://www.iadb.org/csramericas/sections/conferences.html >. 81. MMSD (Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development) project, Breaking New Ground: The Report of the MMSD Project (London: Earthscan, 2002), p. 352, available: < http://www.iied.org/mmsd/finalreport/index.html >. 82. KMPG, op. cit., p. 21. 83. 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