Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:51:18.986Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Corporation as Actual Agreement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Abstract:

In contrast to “social contract” theories of the corporation, a moral justification of the corporation as actual, not hypothetical, agreement is presented. Central to the justification is the idea of personal projects, as developed by Loren Lomasky. The key idea is the role that corporations can play in the construction and advancement of personal, value-creating projects. The concept of the corporation as actual agreement, as a type of “right of association” theory, is defended against influential criticism of such theories by Thomas Donaldson.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dennett, D. C. 1987. The Intentional Stance. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T. 1982. Corporations and Morality. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. 1977. Taking Rights Seriously. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Easterbrook, F. H., and Fischel, D. R. 1985. “Limited Liability and the Corporation.” University of Chicago Law Review 52: 89117.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. E. 1984. Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Boston: Pitman Publishing Inc.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. E., and Gilbert, D. R. 1988. Corporate Strategy and the Search for Ethics. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.Google Scholar
French, P. A. 1979. “The Corporation as a Moral Person.” American Philosophical Quarterly 16(3): 207215.Google Scholar
Fried, C. 1981. Contract as Promise. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, M. 1962. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, M. 1970. “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.” The New York Times Magazine. New York.Google Scholar
Goodpaster, K. E., and Matthews, J. B. Jr. 1982. “Can a Corporation Have a Conscience?” Harvard Business Review 60(1): 132141.Google Scholar
Hardin, R. 1988. Morality within the Limits of Reason. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hartman, E. M. 1996. Organizational Ethics and the Good Life. New York, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. 1945. “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” The American Economic Review 35(4).Google Scholar
Hessen, R. 1979. In Defense of the Corporation. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press.Google Scholar
Jensen, M., and Meckling, W. 1976. “Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure.” The Journal of Financial Economics 3: 305360.Google Scholar
Keeley, M. F. 1988. A Social-Contract Theory of Organizations. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. K. 1969. Convention. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Locke, J. 1988. Two Treatises of Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lomasky, L. E. 1987. Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community. New York, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
May, L. 1987. The Morality of Groups: Collective Responsibility, Group-Based Harm, and Corporate Rights. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
McMahon, C. 1994. Authority and Democracy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Narveson, J. 1988. The Libertarian Idea. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Nozick, R. 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books, Inc.Google Scholar
Pfeiffer, R. S. 1995. Why Blame the Organization?: A Pragmatic Analysis of Collective Moral Responsibility. Lanham, Md.: Littlefield Adams Books.Google Scholar
Pilon, R. 1979. “Corporations and Rights: On Treating Corporate People Justly.” Georgia Law Review 13 (Summer): 12451370.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sollars, G. G. 1999. The Corporation as Actual Agreement. Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. Charlottesville, Va.: University of Virginia: 186.Google Scholar
Sollars, G. G. 2001. “An Appraisal of Shareholder Proportional Liability.” Journal of Business Ethics 32(4): 329345.Google Scholar
Sugden, R. 1986. The Economics of Rights, Co-operation, and Welfare. New York: Basil Blackwell, Inc.Google Scholar
von Mises, L. 1963. Human Action. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company.Google Scholar
Werhane, P. H. 1985. Persons, Rights, and Corporations. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.Google Scholar