Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-19T03:00:50.826Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

CSR public policies in India's democracy: ambiguities in the political regulation of corporate conduct

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2017

Abstract

The rise of public policies in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) suggests a reassertion of state power over a phenomenon initially designed to weaken public authorities. But depending on policy objectives and underlying state-business relationships, CSR public policies seem to oscillate between the steering of corporate conduct towards political goals and the provision of political support to business interests. The present paper offers new perspectives on this ambiguity. Using social systems theory to guide a comparative study of two major Indian CSR policies, the analysis distinguishes two levels. At a functional level, the introduction of CSR in Indian regulatory politics produced more or less constraining expectations that open up opportunities for companies to participate in the performance of political functions. At an operational level, however, even a “mandatory” policy designed primarily according to political calculations let companies decide how they perform these functions. This persistence of voluntarism, which is supported by the semantic properties of “CSR,” consolidates the role of profit-driven calculations in the regulation of corporate conduct and, in the Indian case, in the redistribution of resources for social welfare. Research perspectives on the implications of CSR public policies for democracy are outlined in concluding remarks.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © V.K. Aggarwal 2017 and published under exclusive license to Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers, as well as my colleagues Prof. Rudolf Stichweh and Prof. David Kaldewey, for their thoughtful and constructive comments. I also express my gratitude to the Centre for South Asian Studies (EHESS-CNRS, Paris) and the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (MAE-CNRS, New-Delhi) for the financial and logistical support they provided for fieldwork in India. Last but not least, many thanks to the many interviewees who shared their experience and insights for this research.

References

Abend, Gabriel. 2014. The Moral Background: A Inquiry into the History of Business Ethics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, Niels Åkerstrøm. 2011. “Conceptual History and the Diagnostics of the Present.” Management & Organizational History 6 (3): 248–67.Google Scholar
Archel, Pablo, Husillos, Javier, and Spence, Crawford. 2011. “The Institutionalisation of Unaccountability: Loading the Dice of Corporate Social Responsibility Discourse.” Accounting, Organizations and Society 36 (6): 327–43.Google Scholar
Banerjee, Subhabrata Bobby. 2008. “Corporate Social Responsibility: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Critical Sociology 34 (1): 5179.Google Scholar
Bernhard, Ungericht, and Christian, Hirt. 2010. “CSR as a Political Arena: The Struggle for a European Framework.” Business and Politics 12 (4): 124.Google Scholar
Besio, Cristina, and Pronzini, Andrea. 2008. “Niklas Luhmann as an Empirical Sociologist: Methodological Implications of the System Theory of Society.” Cybernetics & Human Knowing 15 (2): 931.Google Scholar
Bhattacharya, C. B., Sen, Sankar, and Korschun, Daniel. 2011. Leveraging Corporate Responsibility : The Stakeholder Route to Maximizing Business and Social Value. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Burchell, Jon, and Cook, Joanne. 2013. “CSR, Co-optation and Resistance: The Emergence of New Agonistic Relations Between Business and Civil Society.” Journal of Business Ethics 115 (4): 741–54.Google Scholar
Christensen, Lars Thøger, Morsing, Mette, and Thyssen, Ole. 2013. “CSR as Aspirational Talk.” Organization 20 (3): 372–93.Google Scholar
Confederation of Indian Industries. 2014. “Public-Private Partnerships in CSR in India: Ten Demonstrative Case Studies.”Google Scholar
Corbridge, Stuart, Harriss, John, and Jeffrey, Craig. 2013. India Today: Economy, Politics & Society. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Dentchev, Nikolay A., van Balen, Mitchell, and Haezendonck, Elvira. 2015. “On Voluntarism and the Role of Governments in CSR: Towards a Contingency Approach.” Business Ethics: A European Review 24 (4): 378–97.Google Scholar
Drèze, Jean, and Sen, Amartya. 2013. An Uncertain Glory : India and its Contradictions. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Elkington, John. 1998. Cannibals With Forks : The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, Conscientious commerce. Gabriola Island, Canada: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar
Fleming, Peter, and Jones, Marc T.. 2013. The End of Corporate Social Responsibility: Crisis and Critique. London: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Fox, Tom, Ward, Halina, and Howard, Bruce. 2002. “Public Sector Roles in Strengthening Corporate Social Responsibility: A Baseline Study.”Google Scholar
Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit. 2011. “Corporate Social Responsibility und Entwicklungszusammenarbeit.”Google Scholar
Gond, Jean-Pascal, Kang, Nahee, and Moon, Jeremy. 2011. “The Government of Self-Regulation: On the Comparative Dynamics of Corporate Social Responsibility.” Economy and Society 40 (4): 640–71.Google Scholar
Gupta, Akhil, and Sivaramakrishnan, K. eds. 2011. The State in India After Liberalization: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Oxon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Haas, Peter M. 1992. “Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination.” International Organization 46 (1): 135.Google Scholar
Hanlon, Gerard. 2008. “Rethinking Corporate Social Responsibility and the Role of the Firm: On the Denial of Politics.” In The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility, edited by Crane, Andrew, McWilliams, Abagail, Matten, Dirk, Moon, Jeremy and Siegel, Donald S.. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hasan, Zoya. 2012. Congress after Indira: Policy, Power, Political Change (1984–2009). New-Delhi, India: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazra, Sugato. 2011. Influencing India: Lobbying in the World's Largest Democracy. Kolkata, India: Bridging Borders.Google Scholar
Holmström, Susanne. 2010. “Society's Constitution and Corporate Legitimacy, or Why it Might be Unethical for Business Leaders to Think with their Heart” In Power and Principle in the Market Place: on Ethics and Economics, edited by Rendtorff, J. D.. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing.Google Scholar
Jacobsson, Kerstin, and Garsten, Christina. 2012. “Post-Political Regulation: Soft Power and Post-Political Visions in Global Governance.” Critical Sociology 39 (3): 421–37.Google Scholar
Jaffrelot, Christophe. 2003. India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India. London: C. Hurst.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Rob. 1999. Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India, Contemporary South Asia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Rob, Kennedy, Loraine, and Mukhopadhyay, Partha eds. 2014. Power, Policy, and Protest: The Politics of India's Special Economic Zones. New-Delhi, India: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Joshi, Sachin, Arora, Seema, Pamlin, Dennis, and Sinha, Shirish. 2008. “Indian Companies with Solutions that the World Needs: Sustainability as a Driver for Innovation and Profit.”Google Scholar
Kaplan, Rami. 2015. “Who has been Regulating Whom, Business or Society? The Mid-20th-Century Institutionalization of ‘Corporate Responsibility’ in the USA.” Socio-Economic Review 13 (1): 125–55.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Loraine. 2014. The Politics of Economic Restructuring in India: Economic Governance and State Spatial Rescaling. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kinderman, Daniel. 2012. “‘Free us up so we can be responsible!’ The Co Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility and Neo-Liberalism in the UK, 1977–2010.” Socio-Economic Review 10 (1): 2957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinderman, Daniel. 2013. “Corporate Social Responsibility in the EU, 1993–2013: Institutional Ambiguity, Economic Crises, Business Legitimacy and Bureaucratic Politics.” Journal of Common Market Studies 51 (4): 701–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinderman, Daniel. 2016. “Time for a reality check: Is business willing to support a smart mix of complementary regulation in private governance?Policy and Society 35 (1): 2942.Google Scholar
Knudsen, Jette S, and Brown, Dana. 2015. “Why Governments Intervene: Exploring Mixed Motives for Public Policies on Corporate Social Responsibility.” Public Policy and Administration 30 (1): 5172.Google Scholar
Knudsen, Jette S., Moon, Jeremy, and Slager, Rieneke. 2015. “Government Policies for Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of Institutionalisation.” Policy & Politics 43 (1): 8199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohli, Atul. 2012. Poverty Amid Plenty in the New India. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Krichewsky, Damien. 2011. “Crise et modalités d’élaboration d'un compromis social dans le nouveau capitalisme indien.Revue de la régulation (9): [online].Google Scholar
Krichewsky, Damien. 2012. “ La responsabilité sociale d'entreprise : un méta-encastrement des firmes. Une analyse du cas indien. ” Ph.D. diss., Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, Paris.Google Scholar
Krichewsky, Damien. 2014. “The ‘Socially Responsible’ Company as a Strategic Second-Order Observer: An Indian Case.” MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/10.Google Scholar
Lee, Daniel B., and Brosziewski, Achim. 2009. Observing Society: Meaning, Communication, and Social System. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press.Google Scholar
Lievens, Matthias. 2015. “From Government to Governance: A Symbolic Mutation and Its Repercussions for Democracy.” Political Studies 63: 217.Google Scholar
Luhmann, Niklas. 1995. Social systems. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Luhmann, Niklas. 2012, 2013. Theory of Society. 2 vols. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Marchildon, Allison. 2016. “Corporate responsibility or corporate power? CSR and the shaping of the definitions and solutions to our public problems.” Journal of Political Power 9 (1): 4564.Google Scholar
McWilliams, Abagail, and Siegel, Donald. 2001. “Corporate Social Responsibility: A Theory of the Firm Perspective.” Academy of Management Review 26 (1): 117–27.Google Scholar
Ministry of Corporate Affairs. 2009. “Corporate Social Responsibility Voluntary Guidelines.” New-Delhi: Government of India.Google Scholar
Ministry of Corporate Affairs. 2011. “National Voluntary Guidelines for the Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of Business.” edited by Government of India. New-Delhi, India.Google Scholar
Mohan, Anupama. 2001. “Corporate Citizenship: Perspectives from India.” Journal of Corporate Citizenship 2: 107–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moser, Evelyn. 2015. Postsowjetische Transformationen in der Weltgesellschaft: Politische Dezentralisierung und wirtschaftliche Differenzierung im ländlichen Russland. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript.Google Scholar
Mukherji, Rahul. 2013. “Ideas, Interests, and the Tipping Point: Economic Change in India.” Review of International Political Economy 20 (2): 363–89.Google Scholar
New Trade Union Initiative. India: Statement NTUI on May Day 2015 South Asia Citizens Web, 2015 [cited 14 July 2015]. Available from http://www.sacw.net/article11145.html.Google Scholar
Okoye, Adaeze. 2009. “Theorising Corporate Social Responsibility as an Essentially Contested Concept: Is a Definition Necessary?Journal of Business Ethics 89 (4): 613–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, M. E., and Kramer, M. R.. 2006. “Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility.” Harvard Business Review 84 (12): 7892.Google Scholar
Porter, Michael E., and Kramer, Mark R.. 2011. “Creating Shared Value.Harvard Business Review 89 (1–2): 6277.Google Scholar
Prahalad, C. K. 2005. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing.Google Scholar
Sen, Sunanda, and Dasgupta, Byasdeb. 2009. Unfreedom and Waged Work: Labour in India's Manufacturing Industry. New-Delhi, India: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Shamir, Ronen. 2004. “The De-Radicalization of Corporate Social Responsibility.” Critical Sociology 30 (3): 669–89.Google Scholar
Sharma, Sanjay Kumar. 2013. “A 360 degree analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Mandate of the New Companies Act, 2013.” Global Journal of Management and Business Studies 3 (7): 757–62.Google Scholar
Sinha, Aseema. 2005. “Understanding the Rise and Transformation of Business Collective Action in India.” Business and Politics 7 (2): 137.Google Scholar
Standing Committee on Finance. 2010. “The Companies Bill, 2009: Twenty-First Report.” New-Delhi, India: Lok Sabha Secretariat.Google Scholar
Steurer, Reinhard. 2011. “Soft Instruments, Few Networks: How ‘New Governance’ Materializes in Public Policies on Corporate Social Responsibility Across Europe.” Environmental Policy and Governance 21 (4): 270–90.Google Scholar
Stichweh, Rudolf. 2006. “Semantik und Sozialstruktur: Zur Logik einer systemtheoretischen Unterscheidung.” In Neue Perspektiven der Wissenssoziologie, edited by Tänzler, Dirk, Knoblauch, Hubert and Soeffner, Hans-Georg. Konstanz, Germany: UVK.Google Scholar
Sundar, Pushpa. 2013. Business and Community: The Story of Corporate Social Responsibility in India. New-Delhi, India: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Suryanarayana, M. H., and Das, Mousumi. 2014. “How Inclusive Is India's Reform(ed) Growth?Economic and Political Weekly 49 (6): 4452.Google Scholar
Vallentin, Steen. 2015. “Governmentalities of CSR: Danish Government Policy as a Reflection of Political Difference.” Journal of Business Ethics 127 (1): 3347.Google Scholar
Vallentin, Steen, and Murillo, David. 2012. “Governmentality and the Politics of CSR.” Organization 19 (6): 825–43.Google Scholar
Varman, Rohit, and Al-Amoudi, Ismael. 2016. “Accumulation through derealization: How corporate violence remains unchecked.” Human Relations 69 (10): 1909–35.Google Scholar
Weiner, Myron. 2001. “The struggle for equality: caste in Indian politics.” In The Success of India's Democracy, edited by Kohli, Atul. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wilks, Stephen. 2013. The Political Power of the Business Corporation. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar