The business corporation as a political actor
Business corporations exercise political power, both internally (towards their employees) and externally (towards states, consumers and others). However, corporations have often fallen from the radar in the dominant theories of legitimacy in political philosophy/political theory, i.e. the social contract tradition. The latter has been wedded since the Westphalian era to an individual/state dualism in which there is no evident place for intermediate associations. The dominance of economic theories, understanding corporations as merely private, commercial actors operating in competitive markets, has reinforced this neglect of corporations’ political role. This neglect is untenable in the modern, globalized economy. For better or worse, contemporary societies must be interpreted as ‘corporatocracies’: societies in which corporations (increasingly) exercise political power. This raises the philosophical question of whether – and if so, how – such power can be legitimated, and hence whether corporations can be understood as part of a contemporary, updated, social contract theory. The aim of this proposal is to determine the conditions that underpin the legitimacy of corporate political power.

The project studies this question by focusing on three legitimacy conditions: the exercise of authority should be bound to (1) respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights of citizens, (2) democratic mechanisms of decision-making, and (3) requirements of social justice. It pays special attention to the role of transnational corporations, and to the interaction between the corporation’s political role and its economic functions. The scientific urgency of the project lies in the need to have a better normative understanding of the role of the corporation in the 21st century political order. Its social urgency lies in clarifying if and how corporations can be forces which strengthen societies’ capacities to solve urgent social challenges.