Both the political movement towards deregulation and privatisation, as well as increased globalisation, would seem to indicate increasing freedom for business and a limited role for the state. This development is often termed neo-liberalist. Yet, following the neo-liberalist wave of the 1980s and early 1990s, over the last decade, there has been an increasing focus on social issues, political reactions to globalization and excessive de-regulation. As a result, the issue of corporate (social) responsibility (C(S)R) has risen steadily higher on the international agenda. In this context there has been considerable debate about the business case for corporate responsibility.

 Arguments for why firms should take extended social and environmental responsibility have been developed from numerous points of view, including how CR might enhance conflict management; facilitate reputation building; stimulate development of industrial clusters or support risk management and so on. Given that CR also contributes to social and environmental responsibility in the global economy, it also raises the possibility of partnered government-industry governance. In other words, there should also be a public policy case for CR, especially for advanced welfare nations, which largely fail to impose what they see as acceptable social and environmental standards on the global economy through conventional regulation. Systematic analysis of the public policy case for CR is far less extensive in the literature than that of the business case, however.