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Rethinking Business Regulation - From Self-Regulation to Social Control
Utting, Peter
Utting, Peter
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Abstract
"One of the greatest challenges in the contemporary era of globalization and economic liberalization is how to ensure that the freeing-up of markets and the increasing dominance of transnational corporations (TNCs) in global trade, investment and value chains do not undermine patterns of development that are socially inclusive and ecologically sustainable. Several decades ago, many policy makers, activists and scholars looked to the state to protect against the perverse effects of markets and the concentration of capital. With the rise of neoliberal orthodoxy in the 1970s, perversity was not only downplayed in certain circles but also associated more with āstate failureā. Markets, it was assumed, could be kept in check largely by a minimalist state and corporate self-regulation. A discourse and a set of policies, practices and institutions associated with corporate social responsibility (CSR) gained ground in the 1980s and went global in the 1990s. This CSR agenda centred heavily on the promotion of voluntary initiatives to minimize malpractice or improve social, environmental and human rights dimensions of business performance, as well as on the regulatory role of non-state actors in standard-setting and implementation. This paper examines contemporary aspects of business regulation associated with CSR with a view to understanding its considerable influence in business, civil society, governmental and multilateral circles; as well as to assessing its potential to counter the perverse effects of economic liberalization and corporate-led globalization, and reassert social control over markets."(pg iii)
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2005-09
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With permission of the license/copyright holder