Corporate Social Responsibility

The Great Shell Game

Bibliographic Data

ID6015454
AuthorsEllen Hertz (0000-0002-5093-5109, University of Neuchâtel, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume4
Issue2
Pages110-115
Publication date2020-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Legal Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1758-9584 • E-ISSN: 1758-9576
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/jla.2020.040207
OpenAlexW3119268099
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited16

The business of business is business,’ Milton Friedman, a leading figure of the Chicago School of economic thought, famously declaimed. In his 1970 article, ‘The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits’, he argued that corporate managers who factor social and environmental considerations into their decision-making are, in effect, ‘imposing taxes . . . and deciding how the tax proceeds shall be spent’. By deviating from their organizational duties—maximizing profits for the companies that employ them—they are appropriating money owed to shareholders and allocating it to broader social causes, a function that resembles government. Friedman objects to this behavior not on economic or legal but on political grounds: managers have not been elected and there are no principled procedures for determining which causes to support beyond ‘general exhortations from on high’ (Friedman 1970: 17). He also expresses scepticism about ‘hypocritical window-dressing’, concluding: ‘our institutions, and the attitudes of the public make it in their self-interest to cloak their actions in this way’ (Friedman 1970: 17

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