The debate over this question can be simplified once we have reduced the issue to a pair of foundational but contrary world views communitarianism and individualism. The purpose of this article is to consider the idea of social responsibility by examining the persuasiveness of these opposing perspectives. According to communitarianism, society is more than the sum of the individuals in it. The community is organic.
Society exists prior to any particular individual's existence.
The corporation, a possession of the community rather than of individuals, holds a social contract with society from which it derives its power and, therefore, serves a constellation of interests. The communitarian ethic is based on the view that, in a socially interdependent society, no manager can act ethically without considering the claims of others. Communitarians view communities and society as living organisms existing independently of their individual members and believe there is a general common will separate from the wills of the individuals comprising them. For some communitarians, the general will is the will of the state as Leviathan the earthly equivalent of God. Communitarians believe that communities and society have moral significance and rights that are at least equal to the rights of individuals and that sometimes and somehow override individual rights.