Multinational corporations and the social contract

Journal of Business Ethics 31 (3):245 - 258 (2001)
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Abstract

The constitutions of many nations have been explicitly or implicitly founded upon principles of the social contract derived from Thomas Hobbes. The Hobbesian egoism at the base of the contract fairly accurately represents the structure of market enterprise. A contractarian analysis may, then, allow for justified or rationally acceptable universal standards to which businesses should conform. This paper proposes general rational restrictions upon multi-national enterprises, and includes a critique of unjustified restrictions recently proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). I propose restrictions that may be tighter than the OECD and international law currently demand, because reason requires that the activities of enterprises accord with standards of environmental and governmental sustainability in addition to consortium, national law and international law agreements. I argue that it is justifiable that indictments may be presented by a citizen or a government against the local arm of a multinational enterprise in response to violations committed by an arm within a different country.

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Eric Palmer
Allegheny College

Citations of this work

A Social Contract for International Business Ethics.Paul Neiman - 2013 - Journal of Business Ethics 114 (1):75-90.
Is there a morally right price for anti-retroviral drugs in the developing world?Ross Brennan & Paul Baines - 2005 - Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility 15 (1):29–43.

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References found in this work

The Corporation as a Moral Person.Peter A. French - 1979 - American Philosophical Quarterly 16 (3):207 - 215.
Corporate environmental responsibility.Joe DesJardins - 1998 - Journal of Business Ethics 17 (8):825 - 838.

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