Introducing a new democratic model to strengthen corporate social responsibility
There is a critical discrepancy between the pace of economic globalisation and the way in which civil society is organising and structuring itself to respond to the associated challenges, be they of a social or environmental nature. Sociologists speak of a crisis of confidence in civil society in relation to democratic and market economy processes. How these interact can be seen in at least two dimensions:
- Distrust in the democratic process due to increasingly complex legislation that may be undermined by private sector interests (1);
- Mistrust of industry self-regulation in the form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) due to an excessive variety of models and thus too many consumer labels (2),
- Conflicts of interest at the design level and non-continuous or missing audits (3).
Focus of the peer group
The peer group project provides a space for reflection on innovative models of democratic participation with the aim of combating the mistrust of citizens and consumers in regulatory processes.
The peer group can analyse the development of Company X and develop proposals on
- the type of "platform" that should be created
- a not-for-profit business model?
- corporate governance principles that ensure optimal transparency and accountability to shareholders and stakeholders
- an effective communication process for the public and the communication of Company X's charitable purpose and its non-financial incentives
- the core values and principles to which Company X's shareholders must subscribe
an action plan for an initial launch
and/or other topics developed and proposed by the Group
