PROJECT B: Global Governance and Private Actors: The Role of Corporations in Global Politics
THE GROUP IS COMPLETE
Project leader:
Dr. Guido Palazzo, Professor of Business Ethics, University of Lausanne, Ecole des Hautes
Etudes Commerciales (HEC), Faculty of Business and Economics.
One of the key consequences of globalization is the rise of the multinational corporation with
globally stretched values chains. There are about 77.000 multinational corporations with
millions of suppliers worldwide, which navigate in a global governance vacuum. Their value
chains reach into zones of conflict, weak governance zones and repressive regimes. As a
result, corporations often operate in contexts where regulatory rules are unclear, nonexistent
or not in conformity with international standards such as those outlined in the UN
Declaration of Human Rights. They operate in contexts in which the political institutions are
too weak or not willing to promote the well‐being of their citizens. Along their value chains,
multinational corporations are therefore connected to various forms of social and
environmental problems. They do harm. A discussion that started in the late 1980s as a
debate on working conditions in Asian factories producing for Nike has turned into a general
debate about the side‐effects of global production processes and the responsibilities of
corporations within their geopolitical sphere of influence. This debate is fuelled by a rising
number of Non‐Governmental Organizations that, on the one side, make doubtful business
practices transparent and launch campaigns against corporations or, on the other side,
cooperate with corporation in multi‐stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) in order to develop global
behavioural standards.
What is the contribution of corporations to the global public good? Being under the pressure
of critical activists, some corporations have started to engage against corruption, for freedom,
for education, against human rights violations, and for worker rights. They are at the forefront
of the global fight against AIDS and participate in MSIs that set standards for sustainable
forest management and fishing.
This project will reflect upon the dark and the bright side of multinational business activities –
the social and environmental harm resulting from their activities and their role in alleviating
harm and protecting and promoting the common good. Both forms of activities put
corporations at the forefront of a rising debate on the nature of global governance and global
democracy.
The internet is playing a key role in the current debate on the globalization of economic,
cultural and political processes and institutions. In the debate this workshop will seek to
bring about, we will consider the role played by the internet in the dissemination of
knowledge concerning the harm done along global supply chains, in the campaigns launched
by civil society to make pressure on corporations and in the development of solutions for
global problems. However, the landscape of information, actors, and initiatives around the
social and environmental responsibility of business actors within global value chains is highly
fragmented. Thousands, if not millions, of micro‐experts know something about some aspects
of some corporations. Getting the whole picture of good and bad activities within those global
values chains is still a challenge.
How would a dynamic web‐based global database for independent information on, and the
evaluation and visualization of, corporate social and environmental performance along global
supply chains look like? How can citizens around the world in their role as consumers,
managers, activists or politicians get a comprehensive, systematic, accessible, timely, and
credible overview over social and environmental aspects of global production?
A first aim of this project is to reflect upon the future of global governance beyond the nation
state and the role, corporations, governments and civil society organizations will have therein.
A second aim is to brainstorm about a Wikipedia‐style initiative that would build a global
reference point for knowledge linked to the behaviour of corporations across the world and
which might become a key element in the development of global governance mechanisms.
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