Politicians and policy makers recognise that capitalist globalisation needs some form of regulation. What is problematic is what kind of regulation can be introduced to retain the benefits of globalisation while curbing its excesses. The social democratic approach accepts globalising tendencies but seeks to regulate them. By social democratic, I refer to electoral political movements (including self-defined democratic parties) that advocate greater social equality and more state provided public welfare. Social democrats frame globalisation in a benign way by decoupling globalisation from capitalism. The issues were raised in Chapter 9 by Dani Rodrik who noted the ‘political trilemma’ between democracy, national political interest and economic globalisation.1 Economic globalisation (exchanges without borders) undermines state coordination and democratic processes. The boundaries of democratic choice encompass states, whereas the economic processes of globalisation transverse states.

The social democratic approach seeks to strengthen the democratic component of this trilemma. It may be resolved at two levels: first, by creating a new global democratic system of rulemaking – global democracy; second, by strengthening the powers of the nation state against global trends by limiting global reach. Both these approaches propose to modify market power and political influence exercised through globalisation. Writers like David Held, Anne Case and Angus Deaton adopt the first approach: globalisation can be ‘tamed’ by making it more responsible and democratic. Such proposals accept the processes of globalisation but remedy their worst features by making institutions more democratic. Colin Crouch adopts the second approach by limiting the powers of global entities, strengthening the state and by promoting ‘democratic assemblies at world-regional level’.

These writers favour a form of internationalisation in which democratic regulation controls the globalisation process. State sovereignty is limited and is ‘shared with’, not lost to, regional and international bodies. A related theme is to limit the powers of global corporations through requirements of social responsibility, which must take into account the public interest. This widens democracy by calling on corporations to act democratically and to consider the interests of relevant stakeholders and thus dilute the capitalist drive for profit. In this chapter, I illustrate the social democratic position approach, then turn to discuss ideas of corporate social responsibility (CSR).