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1 1 (1987)

handle is hein.amenin/aeiaaup0001 and id is 1 raw text is: RATIONAL DEBATE THE MODERN CORPORATION AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Henry G. Manne and Henry C. Wallich Published by American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research The idea that business enterprises have broader responsibilities than the production and sale of goods and services has been a fixture of American social-reformist thinking for some time. This idea is generally labeled corporate social responsibility, and today, as con- cern over our deteriorating natural and social environments spreads, the phrase becomes more common in public discourse. But just what is meant by corporate social responsibility? What are its implications for public policy? In this, the twenty-third in a continuing series of Rational Debates presented by the American Enterprise Institute, Professors Henry G. Manne and Henry C. Wallich grapple with this important and difficult concept. Professor Manne, Kenan professor of law at the University of Rochester, says that since its modern introduction in the early thir- ties, the concept has enjoyed periodic and substantial vogue in the business world as a means to counteract public hostility towards business, the focus of business altruism shifting with the social and economic concerns of the broader public. The cornucopia of the corporate social responsibility advocates overflows with a vast array of programs and proposals but, according to Dr. Manne, this is not where the real economic or social sig- nificance of the concept is to be found. A list of such proposals reveals nothing about the economic implications of this doctrine. Is corporate altruism feasible; are corporate decision makers likely to make unselfish decisions; and can voluntary corporate action really accomplish its announced goals? Answering these questions requires a working definition of corporate social responsibility. Dr. Manne offers one with three

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