Business Legitimacy in the Social Market Economy: Individual and Corporate Economic Citizenship

Abstract

Questions of business legitimacy do not touch upon organizational and stakeholder issues alone. Businesses are also set in a particular social and economic system, with specific norms and values that need to be considered - especially in an economy that is increasingly connected, globally and culturally. To analyze this normative background, the idea of a social market economy needs to be considered. Being the spiritual and factual foundation for many European economies, it suggests a more just design for economic policy, possibly remedying the problems and inequalities the past decades of unbridled capitalism have brought. Considering this idea of a specific economic order, the social market economy is examined with regard to business legitimacy, i.e., the relationship of business and society and how it ties in with current debates of business legitimacy. By looking at the historic economic thoughts of ordoliberalism as its underlying theoretical foundation, what defines a social market economy and the role of business for this economic order are discussed. The discussion of a just economic order is then connected to considerations of a republican view of economic citizenship. This concept ties the idea of the social market economy to both the legitimacy and responsibility of businesses and individual integrity and citizenship.