Commanded Aspirations and Half-Hearted Enactment: The (Yet) Unfulfilled Promises of French-Style CSR

Abstract

Although France came rather late to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) gathering, strong political will to address the CSR notion emerged around the turn of the twenty-first century, materializing in a substantial and pioneering body of legislation. However, the political aspirations and associated legislative efforts have not always led to the expected changes in how French companies address CSR-related issues in practice. The seeds of CSR progress and evolution may have been planted by key political and business actors in the past two decades, but French-style CSR remains, to a certain extent, an unfulfilled promise. This chapter briefly evokes the central characteristics of CSR in France’s business and political environments. Following an account of the historical evolution of France’s CSR-related regulatory efforts and government-led initiatives, with a strong focus on the twenty-first century, this chapter details the central challenges for the continued development and progress of CSR in the French business landscape.

We are all full of discourses that we only half understand and half mean.

—Rae Armantrout, poet