Global Corporations in Global Governance by Christopher May

Author:Christopher May [May, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781134744336
Google: fenqBgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 27434771
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-03-24T00:00:00+00:00

The Compact contains four mechanisms through which the modification of corporate practices may be achieved: Dialogue; Learning; Projects; and Local Networks. Policy Dialogues bring together corporate managers with representatives of various labor and civil society groups, to work with governments on the development of policies to further the aims of the compact. The Learning Forum is intended to allow (through its website and at meetings) the sharing of experiences and the identification of “knowledge gaps” between the best practice of compact participants and those seeking advice on how to improve their own practices. Partnership projects provide opportunities for groups (specifically among the “poor”) to develop research and advocacy projects related to corporate activities, again publicized through a website. Finally, the Global Compact explicitly supports outreach efforts to establish and maintain local networks, through which its aims can be articulated and supported by civil society. Overall, therefore, the compact is facilitative of political action, but is predicated on a central role for corporations themselves: it is an inclusive forum, rather than an external regulatory mechanism.

Indeed, some commentators have argued that the compact has enabled corporations to “blue wash” their activities by claiming an association with the UN (and by extension its values and norms) while not fundamentally changing their behavior. As Jackie Smith sums up this critique:

The Global Compact is ultimately an arrangement that privatizes relations between the UN and transnational corporations, thereby insulating corporations from public scrutiny while tying the hands of the UN, thereby limiting its capacities to ensure implementation of international law and norms.34

Certainly this sort of criticism is not uncommon, prompting some shifts in its organizational practices and demands including new conditions on the use of the compact’s logo, and stricter rules on how partners communicate their progress towards the compact’s goals.35 However, many of the compact’s supporters argue that the norms it encompasses have had some clear influence over contemporary corporate behavior. There is some evidence for instance that there has been some convergence in CSR reporting by compact members which enhances the ability to make comparative judgments and identify those moving fastest towards high levels of norm acceptance and compliance.36 Indeed, this was more its intent—to act as a moral compass for global business—rather than to provide a regulatory regime with formalized verification standards; the compact was and is intended by its originators to shift the understanding of corporate (social) responsibilities and act as a socializing complement to other forms of regulation.37 This is to say that much of the criticism of the UNGC misunderstands its intent and criticizes it for not doing what it was never actually intended to accomplish.

If the Global Compact itself is intended to change corporate behavior through socialization, normative education and other forms of “encouragement,” one might infer that the issue of monitoring actual compliance with its various strictures has been assigned to civil regulation, while the implementation of change is left to the corporate members themselves. This is not to say that it has been privatized in the sense

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