Corporate social responsibility as rectification

Abstract

The paper examines the plausibility of the re-conceptualisation of CSR as rectification for corporations operating in Africa (and other developing nations) given that the current global economic order works to the disadvantage of these countries. Using the Kenya Cut-flower industry as a case in point the paper establishes ground for rectification using Robert Nozick’s libertarian entitlement theory of property rights. The paper then explores how the responsibility for reparations can be rightly ascribed to corporations on the basis of the Integrative Social Contract Theory. Some possible objections to the concept of CSR as rectification are discussed and the implications thereof. It is asserted that though what is ultimately required is the radical re-ordering of the global economic system as it is practiced today, corporations as neo-colonial agents of the economic system have a responsibility to contribute to correcting the injustice.