Philosophical Theory of Business Legitimacy: The Political Corporation

This chapter addresses the concept of business corporation as a good citizen as a fundamental political-philosophical legitimacy strategy. This strategy is based on a democratic-republican formulation of theory of legitimacy in business ethics. From this, the chapter defines the concept of good citizenship in the light of a democratic corporate ethics as the basis of legitimacy. Thus, good citizenship and the political becomes the basis for the definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The argument is that it is necessary to assume the notion of good citizenship to make sense of CSR, which can be considered as an argument for political CSR. The chapter covers the following main parts: (1) legitimacy strategies that build on the good citizenship go beyond the neo-liberal view of economics and politics; (2) legitimacy as defined as based on a democraticrepublican perception of the role of the corporation in society; (3) definition of good citizenship of the company and of the cosmopolitan legitimacy of global corporate ethics; (4) discussion of legitimacy through the company’s good citizenship and political role in society; and (5) conclusion and perspectives.