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For-Profit Corporations in a Just Society: A Social Contract Argument Concerning the Rights and Responsibilities of Corporations

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  • Bishop, John Douglas

Abstract

This article develops contractarian business ethics by applying social contract arguments to a specific question: What are the pre-legal (or moral) rights and responsibilities of corporations? The argument uses a hypothetical social contract to show the existence of for-profit corporations in democratic capitalist societies is consistent with Rawls’s fundamental principles of justice. Corporations ought to have recognised their rights to be autonomous, to pursue private purposes, and to engage in economic activities. Corporations have a responsibility to respect the freedom and human rights of all people, and not to interfere with government programs that ensure people have the education and training they need to find and keep corporate employment and that provide a safety-net that prevents destitution. If corporations have any other rights and responsibilities, those rights and responsibilities need to be established by actual social contracts, probably in the form of legitimate democratic processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Bishop, John Douglas, 2008. "For-Profit Corporations in a Just Society: A Social Contract Argument Concerning the Rights and Responsibilities of Corporations," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 191-212, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:18:y:2008:i:02:p:191-212_01
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    Cited by:

    1. Alice Jonge, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility Through a Feminist Lens: Domestic Violence and the Workplace in the 21st Century," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 471-487, March.
    2. Magali Fia & Lorenzo Sacconi, 2019. "Justice and Corporate Governance: New Insights from Rawlsian Social Contract and Sen’s Capabilities Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 937-960, December.
    3. Paul Neiman, 2013. "A Social Contract for International Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(1), pages 75-90, April.
    4. Giacomo Degli Antoni & Marco Faillo & Lorenzo Sacconi & Pedro Francés-Gomez, 2016. "Distributive Justice with Production and the Social Contract. An Experimental study," Econometica Working Papers wp60, Econometica.
    5. E. Schumacher & David Wasieleski, 2013. "Institutionalizing Ethical Innovation in Organizations: An Integrated Causal Model of Moral Innovation Decision Processes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 15-37, March.
    6. David Rönnegard & N. Craig Smith, 2024. "A Rawlsian Rule for Corporate Governance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(2), pages 295-308, March.

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