IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v127y2015i2p385-397.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Business Ethics After Citizens United: A Contractualist Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • David Silver

Abstract

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ( 2010 ), the US Supreme Court sharply curtailed the ability of the state to limit political speech by for-profit corporations. This new legal situation elevates the question of corporate political involvement: in what manner and to what extent is it ethical for for-profit corporations to participate in the political process in a liberal democratic society? Using Scanlon’s version of contractualism, I argue for a number of substantive and procedural constraints on the political activities of businesses. Central to this contractualist analysis is (1) an identification of the self-governance-based interests of individuals that are affected by corporate political activity and (2) a method for judging the various assignments of social rights, duties and roles according to how they collectively meet those interests. Together, these two features make this contractualist approach distinctive and allow it to generate substantive ethical results. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • David Silver, 2015. "Business Ethics After Citizens United: A Contractualist Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 385-397, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:127:y:2015:i:2:p:385-397
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-2046-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10551-013-2046-y
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-013-2046-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Silver, 2012. "Citizens as Contractualist Stakeholders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(1), pages 3-13, August.
    2. Buchanan, Allen, 1985. "Ethics, Efficiency and the Market," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198285335.
    3. Whelan, Glen, 2012. "The Political Perspective of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Critical Research Agenda," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 709-737, October.
    4. Weber, Leonard J., 1997. "Ethics and the Political Activity of Business: Reviewing the Agenda," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(3), pages 71-79, July.
    5. van Oosterhout, J. (Hans), 2008. "Transcending the Confines of Economic and Political Organization? The Misguided Metaphor of Corporate Citizenship," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 35-42, January.
    6. Hsieh, Nien-hê, 2009. "Does Global Business Have a Responsibility to Promote Just Institutions?," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 251-273, April.
    7. Néron, Pierre-Yves & Norman, Wayne, 2008. "Citizenship, Inc. Do We Really Want Businesses to Be Good Corporate Citizens?," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 1-26, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anne Sachet-Milliat & Jacques Igalens, 2019. "Le lobbying en France: une approche par le concept de corégulation," Post-Print hal-02872767, HAL.
    2. David Silver, 2021. "Democratic Governance and the Ethics of Market Compliance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 525-537, October.
    3. Samuel Mansell & John Ferguson & David Gindis & Avia Pasternak, 2019. "Rethinking Corporate Agency in Business, Philosophy, and Law," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 893-899, February.
    4. Mathieu Alemany Oliver, 2022. "Navigating Between the Plots: A Narratological and Ethical Analysis of Business-Related Conspiracy Theories (BrCTs)," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(2), pages 265-288, January.
    5. Abraham Singer, 2018. "Justice Failure: Efficiency and Equality in Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 97-115, April.
    6. Mathieu Alemany Oliver, 2020. "Navigating Between the Plots: A Narratological and Ethical Analysis of Business-Related Conspiracy Theories (BrCTs)," Post-Print hal-03289831, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierre-Yves Néron, 2016. "Rethinking the Ethics of Corporate Political Activities in a Post-Citizens United Era: Political Equality, Corporate Citizenship, and Market Failures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(4), pages 715-728, July.
    2. Abraham Singer, 2018. "Justice Failure: Efficiency and Equality in Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 97-115, April.
    3. Federico Ast, 2019. "The Deliberative Test, a New Procedural Method for Ethical Decision Making in Integrative Social Contracts Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 207-221, March.
    4. Tadhg Ó Laoghaire, 2023. "Why (Some) Corporations Have Positive Duties to (Some of) the Global Poor," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(3), pages 741-755, May.
    5. Miguel Alzola, 2023. "Conceptions of the Firm and Corporate Allegiances," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 201-216, August.
    6. Rajwani, Tazeeb & Liedong, Tahiru Azaaviele, 2015. "Political activity and firm performance within nonmarket research: A review and international comparative assessment," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 273-283.
    7. Tahiru Azaaviele Liedong, 2021. "Responsible Firm Behaviour in Political Markets: Judging the Ethicality of Corporate Political Activity in Weak Institutional Environments," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(2), pages 325-345, August.
    8. Aurélien Feix & Georg Wernicke, 2024. "When Is CEO Activism Conducive to the Democratic Process?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(4), pages 755-774, April.
    9. Pierre-Yves Néron, 2010. "Business and the Polis: What Does it Mean to See Corporations as Political Actors?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(3), pages 333-352, July.
    10. Shahzad Uddin & Javed Siddiqui & Muhammad Azizul Islam, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures, Traditionalism and Politics: A Story from a Traditional Setting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 409-428, August.
    11. Mary Stoll, 2015. "Corporate Political Speech and Moral Obligation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 553-563, December.
    12. Prabhir Poruthiyil, 2013. "Weaning Business Ethics from Strategic Economism: The Development Ethics Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(4), pages 735-749, September.
    13. Thomas Maak & Nicola M. Pless & Christian Voegtlin, 2016. "Business Statesman or Shareholder Advocate? CEO Responsible Leadership Styles and the Micro-Foundations of Political CSR," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 463-493, May.
    14. David Monciardini & Guido Conaldi, 2019. "The European regulation of corporate social responsibility: The role of beneficiaries' intermediaries," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(2), pages 240-259, June.
    15. Robert Tartarin, 1987. "Efficacité et propriété," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 38(6), pages 1129-1156.
    16. Caterina Lorenzo-Molo & Zenon Udani, 2013. "Bringing Back the Essence of the “S” and “R” to CSR: Understanding the Limitations of the Merchant Trade and the White Man’s Burden," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 123-136, September.
    17. Victor Oltra & Jaime Bonache & Chris Brewster, 2013. "A New Framework for Understanding Inequalities Between Expatriates and Host Country Nationals," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 291-310, June.
    18. Julia Rotter & Peppi-Emilia Airike & Cecilia Mark-Herbert, 2014. "Exploring Political Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Supply Chains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(4), pages 581-599, December.
    19. Fortwengel, Johann & Gutierrez Huerter O, Gabriela & Kostova, Tatiana, 2023. "Three decades of research on practice transfer in multinational firms: Past contributions and future opportunities," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(3).
    20. Florian Wettstein, 2010. "The Duty to Protect: Corporate Complicity, Political Responsibility, and Human Rights Advocacy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 96(1), pages 33-47, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:127:y:2015:i:2:p:385-397. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.