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The Importance Of Civil Society

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The current wave of globalization presents historically unprecedented trends towards interconnectedness and interdependence that are reshaping global and local political, economic and cultural processes (Held et al., 1999). These trends and processes have had a significant global problem for companies and industry activities, the natural environment and technologies (Parker, 2005) and have led to a blurring of the boundaries between business, government and society. They have also caused the rise of new actors such as non-governmental organizations and the emergence of what has become known as “civil society”, a phenomenon that can be seen as both a response to and a shaper of heightened societal awareness and expectations on social and environmental …show more content…
Two of the expectations that will be reviewed are Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Ethics. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the commitment by organizations to ‘behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as the local community and society at large’, (Lecture Notes).

The idea of social responsibilities supposes that the corporation has not only economic and legal obligations but also certain responsibilities to society, which extend beyond these obligations.

Social responsibility is the obligation of decision makers to take actions which protect and improve the welfare of society as a whole along with their own interests. CSR is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as the local community and society at …show more content…
The benefits of enforcing (CSR) can be very good.
Government

• Development and acceleration of microecominc sustainable growth through using good cooperate governance/value change and “best practices”, resulting to a market environment conductive to both local and foreign investors
• Encouraging CSR activities, giving benefit to the community, with meeting certain development and sustainability criteria possibly being considered for tax incentives
• Joint CSR budgets possibly representing an additional source of public revenue (employment and wealth creation to reduce poverty)
• Activities such as involvement with the local community are ideal opportunities to generate positive press

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