The Politics of Corporate and Social Responsibility

Abstract

Companies have a corporate and social responsibility, which extends to the safety of the products which a corporation sells, as well as the prevention of deception; for example, through false advertisements. Even though food corporations are not responsible for individual consumers’ behaviour, they could be responsible for their own applied ethics. CSR may be compromised as the food and beverage industries are large pressure groups which may interfere in the political decision-making process. It is also argued that self-regulation of the food and beverage industry would be largely ineffective as their aim is to maximize profits so that there is little reason for them to support a viable health policy which would reduce the sales of unhealthy products.