Corporations and the Third Way

Description

The search for an ethical foundation for corporate behaviour has been a powerful theme of scholarship in company law since the middle of the last c entury. In an era of social democracy the search has intensified, fuelled by the demise of the new right both in economic and social terms. The author of this work argues that third way politics offers a means of identifying that foundation by emphasizing the need for social co-operation and partnership through shared agendas rather than regulatory pressure. In contrast to many contemporary "globalization" theorists the author argues that corporations are in fact profoundly concerned with national political and social agendas rather than global ones. The reasons for the demise of the new right are intimately connected with the position of corporations within civil society. Corporations have little choice but to become involved with third way politics and its accompanying social agendas.

Sally Wheeler is Professor of Law at Queens University Belfast.

Sally Wheeler's Corporations and the Third Way presents a fresh academic approach to the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The sheer number of ideas that Wheeler, a corporate legal scholar, has to offer us is challenging and refreshing, particularly given the fact that law and economics perspectives currently dominate corporate legal scholarship. The multidisciplinary approach to her ideas also results in a vibrancy and depth that a purely legal approach would have lacked. -- Orysia Semotiuk * Social and Legal Studies *