Description

Abstract: This essay argues that corporate social responsibility forms not only a new chapter in government-business relations, but in cooperation with changes in governance and civil society, call for a new social contract. As corporatism in Canada becomes more and more predominant and globalization puts corporations increasingly out of the reach of national governments, national polities lose influence on the economy they are supposed to govern. Thus the – especially in Canada – traditionally rather intimate relationship between government and business grows more distant and lopsided. Still, the notion of corporate social responsibility is gaining popularity and it is of increasing importance to companies to appear ethically, socially and environmentally responsibility to the general public and their customers.