Corporate Citizenship a Dying Concept [View all]

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from truthdig:


Corporate Citizenship a Dying Concept

Posted on Jul 15, 2013
By William Pfaff


One of the interesting questions that resulted from the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case in 2010, which assigned political personhood to corporations, is whether this corporate personhood carries responsibilities. It used to, in another age, but does it now?

The notion of the business corporation as a person was in the past a legal fiction useful in the formation of business enterprises but never before was thought to confer political rights and protections equivalent to those of human beings, as the Supreme Court has held, thereby turning American business into an unprecedentedly powerful political actor and unchecked financial contributor to electoral politics.

Certain responsibilities of “corporate citizenhood” were commonly spoken of in the past, between the Progressive Era (notably the Theodore Roosevelt presidency) and the events preceding the present global recession. Corporate responsibility was a major consideration following the Second World War period of national unity, until America’s seeming triumphal exit from the Cold War and the increasingly frenzied performance of Wall Street underwrote a second Gilded Age of false values, comparable to the original one (between the Ulysses Grant and Theodore Roosevelt presidencies) in its celebration of rampant greed and speculative finance.

The “Remapping Debate” organization in June published the results of an inquiry among 80 American multinational corporations. The question asked was whether as corporations they possessed citizen-like obligations to the American nation. Most refused to answer. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/corporate_citizenship_a_dying_concept_20130715/?ln