Abstract
The business of business is business. So why should corporations be involved in development? The main proposition of this chapter is that Governments and their international arms, the international agencies grouped under the umbrella of the United Nations, have failed in their attempts to rid the planet of under-development and poverty. So saying, as development has to take place and given that the private sector, particularly large corporations with their power and economic strength, have now been given their head, then should the private sector take much more responsibility for development than ever before? The paper will develop the argument that CSR provides a platform for corporations to be involved in economic development in ways that can be much more powerful than has been thought of hitherto. Economic development (also now transfigured somewhat curiously into sustainable development) means improving the well being of disadvantaged people wherever they may be.
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Notes
- 1.
This author was privileged to have had Dudley Seers as boss, friend and colleague during his own uears at IDS at U f Sussex and later at the ILO. On the meaning of development see: http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/themeaningofdevelopment2.pdf. Accessed 7 Aug 2012.
- 2.
See for instance the discussion in Michael Hopkins and Rolph Van Der Hoeven (1983).
- 3.
Simon Caulkin (2005).
- 4.
Michael Hopkins (2007).
- 5.
Not just profits since MNEs can allocate many ‘costs’ as they will – large payments to shareholders, director’s remuneration, investment in assets both physical and human etc.
- 6.
According to tally on the Web site of The Chronicle of Philanthropy trade newspaper.
- 7.
See for instance, Michael Hopkins and Roger Crowe (2003).
- 8.
Michael Hopkins (2003) updated since by author see also www.mhcinternational.com. Accessed 7 Aug 2012.
- 9.
http://www.eventnews.info/general/you-dont-get-giving-till-you-get-giving/. Accessed 7 Aug 2012.
- 10.
John Blundell (2004).
- 11.
James Collins and Jerry Porras (1994).
- 12.
Global Compact (2005).
- 13.
Revised version of a speech given at an event in London on May 9th 2012 organized by International Alert and moderated by BBC presenter Zainab Badawi.
- 14.
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_defense_spending_30.html. Accessed 21 May 2012.
- 15.
According Stephen Kinzer (2003), the former New York Times bureau chief, author of All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, told the story of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s role in the 1953 CIA coup against Iran’s popular progressive prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. Kinzer states that ‘At the beginning of the twentieth century, as a result of a corrupt deal with the old dying monarchy, one British company, owned mainly by the British government, had taken control of the entire Iranian oil industry. So, this one company had the exclusive rights to extract, refine, ship, and sell Iranian oil. And they paid Iran a very tiny amount. But essentially, the entire Iranian oil resource was owned by a company based in England and owned mainly by the British government’.
- 16.
- 17.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/25/somalia-alshabaab-oil-west. Accessed 10 May 2012.
- 18.
Although recent events show that even that previous island of stability is suffering from dictatorial tendencies of its President and his wife.
References
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Global Compact (2005) Asia conference on MDGs under the framework of the UN Global Compact: GLOBAL COMPACT REGIONAL CONCLAVE, Jamshedpur, India, 8 Mar 2005. http://www.unglobalcompact.org/content/NewsEvents/mdg_bus/mdg_jamshed.pdf
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Internet Resources
http://www.eventnews.info/general/you-dont-get-giving-till-you-get-giving/. Accessed 7 Aug 2012
http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/themeaningofdevelopment2.pdf. Accessed 7 Aug 2012
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_defense_spending_30.html. Accessed 21 May 2012
http://mnasap.org/news/18/82/Saint-Paul-City-Hall-Jack-Nelson-Pallmeyer-Speaks-on-Military-Spending-and-Corporate-Personhood.html. Accessed 15 July 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/25/somalia-alshabaab-oil-west. Accessed 10 May 2012
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Hopkins, M. (2013). Humanitarian Perspective on Social Innovation. In: Osburg, T., Schmidpeter, R. (eds) Social Innovation. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36540-9_4
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