Public Policy and Voluntary Initiatives : What Roles Have Governments Played?

Government involvement in “voluntary” initiatives for corporate responsibility has been extensive. This chapter reviews four main types of involvement -- legal and regulatory incentives, tax expenditures on the NGO sector, contributions to compliance expertise and moral suasion. The most influential government measures have been closely co-ordinated with broader public strategy, especially in relation to regulatory reform. Many of the private initiatives studied here are closely related to the legal and regulatory environments from which they emerge. Indeed, in some instances, these initiatives are so clearly a response to legal and regulatory incentives, that they could almost be called the extension or reflection into private management practices of public law and regulation. As a result, it is often difficult to analyse the impact or effectiveness of these initiatives independently of the legal and regulatory framework from which they emerge -- the two form an interdependent ...