Is corporate social responsibility a constructivist regime? Evidence from Latin America

Global Society

Volumn 21, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 269-296

  Haslam, Paul Alexander ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADVOCACY; CIVIL SOCIETY; FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT; NEGOTIATION PROCESS; STRATEGIC APPROACH;

LATIN AMERICA;

EID: 51249158905     PISSN: 13600826     EISSN: 1469798X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13600820701201996     Document Type: Article

References (122)

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: .
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
5. 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
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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: .
12. Ougaard, op. cit., p. 231.
13. Susan Strange, "Cave! Hic Dragones:A Critique of Regime Analysis", International Organization, Vol. 36, No. 2 (1982), p. 487.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. Cutler et al., "Private Authority in International Affairs", op. cit.;
17. A. Claire Cutler, Private Power and Global Authority: Transntional Merchant Law in the Global Political Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
18. 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).
19. Cutler et al., "Private Authority in International Affairs", op. cit., pp. 10-12.
20. Ibid., p. 13.
21. Cutler et al., "The Contours and Significance", op. cit., p. 339
22. Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 4.
23. Cutler, Private Power and Global Authority, op. cit., pp. 30-31.
24. 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.
25. Haufler, "Globalization and Industry Self-regulation", op. cit., pp. 249-250.
26. 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.
27. Cutler et al., "The Contours and Significancev", op. cit., pp. 334-337.
28. Stephen D. Krasner, "Structural Causes and Regime Consequences: Regimes as Intervening Variables", International Organization, Vol. 36, No 2 (1982), p. 185.
29. 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.
30. Cutler, Private Power, op. cit., pp. 43-44.
31. Haufler, "Self-regulation", op. cit., p. 202.
32. Cutler et al., "The Contours and Significance", op. cit., p. 362.
33. Thomas M. Franck, The power of Legitimacy among Nations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 26.
34. Ibid., pp. 17-18.
35. Cutler, Private Power, op. cit., p. 31.
36. Cutler et al., "Private Authority in International Affairs", op. cit., pp. 10-14.
37. LouisW. 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;
38. Cutler, Private Power, op. cit., p. 28.
39. 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.
40. 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.
41. Martin Carnoy, The State and Political Theory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), pp. 140, 149
42. Jürgen Habermas, Legitimation Crisis (Boston: Beacon Press, 1975), pp. 70-71
43. Bob Jessop, State Theory: Putting Capitalist States in their Place (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990), pp. 216-217
44. Claus Offe, "Advanced Capitalism and the Welfare State", Politics and Society, Vol. 2, No. 4 (1970), p. 485.
45. O'Connor, op. cit., p. 46.
46. Also see Claus Offe, op. cit., p. 482.
47. Jessop, op. cit., p. 216.
48. Ibid., p. 208.
49. Ibid., pp. 209-210.
50. Bull, Bøås and McNeill approach the problem of legitimacy from the other angle, asking whether the increase in private involvement in UN activities has undermined the legitimacy of the United Nations. Benedicte Bull, Morten Bøås and Desmond McNeill, "Private Sector Influence in the Multilateral System: A Changing Structure of World Governance?", Global Governance, Vol. 10 (2004), pp. 492-493
51. Georg Kell and John Gerard Ruggie, " Global Markets and Social Legitimacy: The Case for the 'Global Compact'", Transnational Corporations, Vol. 8, No. 3 (1999), p. 116.
52. Stephen D. Krasner, "Structural Causes and Regime Consequences: Regimes as Intervening Variables", International Organization, Vol. 36, No. 2 (1982), p. 186.
53. Barry Buzan, "From International System to International Society: Structural Realism and Regime Theory Meet the English School", International Organization, Vol. 47, No. 3 (1993), pp. 330, 343
54. AlexanderWendt, "Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics", International Organization, Vol. 46, No. 2 (1992), p. 395
55. Maja Zehfuss, Constructivism in International Relations: The Politics of Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 12.
56. Alexander E. Wendt, "The Agent-Structure Problem in International Relations Theory", International Organization, Vol. 41, No. 3 (1987).
57. Friedrich Kratochwil, "Thrasymmachos Revisited: On the Relevance of Norms and the Study of Law for International Relations", Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 37, No. 2 (1984), p. 346.
58. Andreas Hasenclever, Peter Mayer and Volker Rittberger, Theories of International Regimes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 163.
59. Kratochwil, "Thrasymmachos Revisited", op. cit., p. 351.
60. Friedrich Kratochwil, "The Force of Prescriptions", International Organization, Vol. 38, No. 4 (1984), p. 707.
61. Hasenclever et al., op. cit., pp. 176-179.
62. Newell, op. cit., p. 542.
63. Rodney Bruce Hall, "Moral Authority as Power Resource", International Organization, Vol. 51, No. 4 (1997), p. 591.
64. Christopher Gelpi, The Power of Legitimacy: Assessing the Role of Norms in Crisis Bargaining (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), p. 156.
65. Hall, op. cit., pp. 593, 596.
66. Haufler, "Self-regulation", op. cit., p. 212
67. Ougaard, op. cit., pp. 228-229.
68. Cutler et al., "Private Authority in International Affairs", op. cit., p. 13.
69. Aaronson and Reeves, op. cit.
70. See also Richard Welford, "Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe, North America and Asia: 2004 Survey Results", Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Vol. 17 (Spring 2005), pp. 33-52.
71. Monica Araya, "Exploring Terra Incognita: Non-financial Reporting in Corporate Latin America", Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Vol. 21 (Spring 2005), p. 25.
72. For an overview of the existing work on CSR in Latin America, see Maŕna 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)
73. 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
74. 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: .
75. On external influences, see Haslam, op. cit.;
76. 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
77. AntonioVives, "TheRole ofMultilateralDevelopment Institutions in FosteringCorporate Social Responsibility", Development,Vol. 47,No. 3 (2004), pp. 45-52.
78. Oninternal influences see M. Cecilia Arruda, "Business Ethics in Latin America", Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 16,No. 14 (1997), p. 1599
79. 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.
80. Araya, op. cit., pp. 31-33.
81. Welford, op. cit., pp. 49-50.
82. Vives, "The Role of Multilateral", op. cit., pp. 46-47.
83. Antonio Vives, "Social and Environmental Responsibility in Small and Medium Enterprises in Latin America", Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Vol. 21 (Spring 2006), pp. 40-41.
84. Ibid., p. 41.
85. SOFOFA (Sociedad de Fomento Fabril), Informativo de la industria, Vol. 13 (Santiago: SOFOFA, September 2003), p. 2.
86. Richard Jones, A Review of Corporate Social Responsibility in the English-speaking Caribbean (Barbados: Community Tourism Foundation/ Caribbean Policy Development Centre, 2003), p. 29.
87. Environics International, e-Flash Report (Toronto: GlobeScan Incorporated, 2001), available: .
88. Cutler et al., "Private Authority in International Affairs", op. cit., p. 13.
89. Barbara Stallings and Wilson Peres, Growth, Employment, and Equity: The Impact of the Economic Reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press and ECLAC, 2000), pp. 107-108, 149-151.
90. ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean), Social Panorama of Latin America, Briefing Paper (Santiago: United Nations, 2004), pp. 7, 12.
91. UNDP, Report on Democracy in Latin America: Towards a Citizens' Democracy (Buenos Aires: United Nations Development Programme, 2004), pp. 146-147.
92. Marta Lagos, "How People View Democracy: Between Stability and Crisis in Latin America", Journal of Democracy, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2001), pp. 139, 142.
93. Haslam, op. cit., p. 5.
94. OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises: 2003 Annual Meeting of the National Contact Points. Report by the Chair (Paris: OECD, 2003), p. 9.
95. OAS (Organization of American States), Quebec Summit of the Americas, Action Plan (Washington, DC: OAS, 2001), p. 16, available: .
96. OAS (Organization of American States), Permanent Council of the OAS, Promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility in theHemisphere, OEA/Ser.G, CP/CG-1521/03, 11April (Washington,DC:OAS, 2003).
97. Peinado-Vara, op. cit., pp. 3-4
98. Vincular, op. cit., pp. 2-3.
99. Inter-American Development Bank, Multilateral Investment Fund, Project Database (Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 2005), available: .
100. Araya, op. cit., p. 27.
101. Veet Vivarta and Guiherme Canela, "Corporate Social Responsibility in Brazil: The Role of the Press as Watchdog", Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Vol. 21 (Spring 2006), pp. 100, 102-105.
102. GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), Introducing the 2002 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (Amsterdam: GRI, 2002), pp. 7-8, available: .
103. Araya, op. cit., p. 26.
104. KPMG, KPMG International Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2005 (Amsterdam: KPMG Global Sustainability Services, 2005), pp. 4, 38, available: .
105. 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: .
106. 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: .
107. MMSD (Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development) project, Breaking New Ground: The Report of the MMSD Project (London: Earthscan, 2002), p. 352, available: .
108. KMPG, op. cit., p. 21.
109. Welford, op. cit., p. 50.
110. KMPG, op. cit., p. 18.
111. IDB, Proceedings of the 1st Inter-American Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, op. cit., p. 45; MMSD, op. cit., p. 224.
112. MMSD, op. cit., p. 225.
113. MPRI (Mining Policy Research Initiative), "Mining Companies and Local Development. Latin America: Chile, Colombia and Peru. Executive Summary" (Montevideo: International Development Research Centre, 2003), available: hHttp://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/ 11133339091exec_sumary_alianzas.pdf (accessed 28 September 2005), p. 7.
114. See, for example, Wesley Cragg and Alan Greenbaum, "Reasoning about Responsibilities: Mining Company Managers on What Stakeholders are Owed", Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 39, No. 3 (2002), pp. 322, 328-332. Cragg and Greenbaum point out that being a stakeholder was a "moral status" that permitted participation at the bargaining table. Nonetheless, managers followed an instrumental logic concerned with their responsibility to prevent adverse consequences from mine development. Bargaining outcomes did not vary from those principles.
115. MPRI, op. cit., p. 5.
116. MMSD, op. cit., p. 212.
117. IDB, Proceedings of the 1st Inter-American Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, op. cit., p. 37
118. IDB, Proceedings of the 2nd Inter-American Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, op. cit., p. 103.
119. MPRI (Mining Policy Research Initiative), Conflict, Consensus and Dialogue in the Mining Sector, Mining and Sustainable Development Series No. 1 (Montevideo: International Development Research Centre, 2004), pp. 7-8, available: .
120. Ibid., p. 6.
121. Ibid., pp. 9-10.
122. Biersteker and Hall, "Private Authority as Global Governance", in Hall and Biersteker, op. cit., p. 219.