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Contribution Details

Type Conference Presentation
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Corporate citizenship and corporate governance – compensating for the democratic deficit of corporate political activity
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Dorothée Baumann-Pauly
  • Andreas Scherer
  • Anselm Jakob Schneider
Presentation Type paper
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Event Title 4th International CSR-Conference “CSR Challenges around the Globe”
Event Type conference
Event Location Berlin, Germany
Event Start Date September 22 - 2010
Event End Date September 24 - 2010
Abstract Text In this paper we address the democratic deficit that emerges when private corporations engage with public policy, either by providing citizenship rights and global public goods (corporate citizenship) or by influencing the political system and lobbying for their economic interests (strategic corporate political activities). This democratic deficit is significant, especially when multinational corporations operate in locations where national governance mechanisms are weak or even fail, where the rule of law is absent and there is a lack of democratic control. This may lead to a decline in the social acceptance of the business firm and its corporate political activities and, thus, to a loss of corporate legitimacy. Under these conditions corporations may compensate the emerging democratic deficit and reestablish their legitimacy by internalizing democratic mechanisms within their organizations, in particular in their corporate governance structures and procedures. We analyze the available corporate governance models with the help of a typology and discuss the possible contributions of a new form of democratic corporate governance.
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