BIZPOL · Business as political actor – evolving practice, emerging norms and shifting expectations for a pivotal determinant of public trust in both business and democracy (BIZPOL)
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-05-01 → 2023-07-31
- EU contribution
- €328,968
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
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Results in brief
Business as political actor – evolving practice, emerging norms and shifting expectations for a pivotal determinant of public trust in both business and democracy (BIZPOL)
In a complex world affected by multiple crises business assumes an important role not only in our economies. As the best resourced and often most effective lobby force business also play a very important and consequential role in politics and therefore also in a broader context in relation to solving the major problems of our times and in relation to the public trust in the workings of our institutions This project (BIZPOL) set out to better understand the role of business as a political actor. It aimed at examining in more detail the factors that shape this conduct, the practices and patterns of corporate political activity, the expectations of how businesses should behave in the political world and the dynamics and policy-levers that are available to influence these practices and ensure that business can be a positive force helping to respond to some of the most pressing contemporary policy challenges. The main insights that have resulted from the project include: - the normative expectations for responsible corporate political activity are evolving continuously. What once were rather basic expectations for transparency and a commitment to good faith communication have now evolved into strong expectations to commit to fundamental principles of respecting planetary boundaries, the democratic process and sector specific public interest goals, alongside more expansive expectations for granular reporting and alignment between corporate lobbying, advertising, purpose and business association membership - these normative expectations are shaped by an expanding ecosystem of stakeholders that by now has moved beyond money-in-politics advocates and administrative ethics bodies to also include market regulators, shareholders / investors, corporate governance reformers that offer additional pathways to more transparency and accountability for corporate political activity - the application of corporate influencing strategies to the judiciary beyond litigation - a practice that I term corporate judicial activity - is a highly consequential, yet largely overlooked area in research and policy practice. A first examination of this area shows that corporate lobbying of the judiciary has a long tradition, is substantive in scale and scope, largely driven by a group of highly-incentivized big law firms. The integrity infrastructure of the judiciary to protect against undue influence is however surprisingly underdeveloped and does not match the scale and scope of corporate judicial activity that the judicial system is exposed to
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Business as political actor –evolving practice, emerging norms and shifting expectations for a pivotaldeterminant of public trust in both business and democracy (BIZPOL)BIZPOL deploys a mix of innovative, multi-disciplinary approaches to substantially advance scholarly thinking, as well as thepractical policy debate on corporate political activity (CPA). CPA comprises all non-market activities by companies whenthey engage with governments and policy-making more broadly to advance their interests. As such, CPA is forcefullybecoming central to some of the most vexing societal challenges of our times and evolving into an important area ofresearch in a variety of fields. Business is increasingly recognised as a crucial political actor to address issue such asclimate change or corruption. Yet, at the same time, there is a growing public perception in many countries that corporateinterests have disproportionate influence over policy-making. This suspicion, real or not, has dramatic consequences forpublic trust in both democracy and markets.With BIZPOL I aim to make significant contributions to the growing body of scholarship in this area through four interrelatedwork streams:• what should CPA look like? An exploration of plausible normative expectations for responsible CPA drawing on normativetheories of democracy;• what does CPA look like? A comparative diagnostic exercise to assess the transparency and patterns of current CPApractices in major European companies with new metrics and new data;• how is CPA “produced”? A qualitative, in-depth exploration of where and how expectations and decisions aboutresponsible exercise of CPA are constructed and negotiated, inside companies, as well as in the broader stakeholdercommunity; and,• where is CPA heading? A survey and desk-research supported interrogation of the future evolution of CPA and the potential of research and education tocritically and constructively accompany this trajectory.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL · FrederiksbergCoordinatorDenmark
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union