[governance] corporates and ethics

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

The very same thing might apply to some individuals, academia, even, quelle horror, some civil society outfits.

Giving any of them multistakeholder rights strikes me as a complete waste of time, but well, they are there and they do have as many rights as the facebooks of the world do.

--srs (iPad)

> On 06-Jul-2014, at 21:56, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
> 
> http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/06/we-shouldnt-expect-facebook-to-behave-ethically?CMP=fb_gu
> 
> "Besides, the idea that corporations might behave ethically is as absurd as the proposition that cats should respect the rights of small mammals. Cats do what cats do: kill other creatures. Corporations do what corporations do: maximise revenues and shareholder value and stay within the law. Facebook may be on the extreme end of corporate sociopathy, but really it's just the exception that proves the rule."
> 
> (quote ends)
> 
> Well, if I had said these sentences, there would have been an immediate multistakeholder (MS) condemnation, for not conforming to the multi-stakeholder spirit!
> 
> It is these corporations that are to sought to be given special political rights by the 'equal footing' MS brigade, to be on the policy making table and making political decisions, for all of us. ...  The US public, and its civil society organisations, are still reeling under the impact of the US court ruling to allow unlimited corporate contribution to campaign financing, on the basis of a novel political construction that corporates have the right to freedom of expression, which cannot be diluted under the first amendment. This judgement, many in the US and abroad feel, is having the impact of spinning US politics so much away from its democratic foundation that soon it may be difficult to consider US as a really working democracy. 
> 
> But that 'novel political construction' of allowing corporates to have human rights was nothing. The 'equal footing' MSists go much much further; they want corporates to have voting rights and decision making powers for public policy matters. The rest of world has simply not waken up to this demon, which is making slow but serious progress, although somewhat clandestinely, against the values and institutions of democracy.  
> 
> parminder 
> 
> 
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