BP is not a bad citizen

BP is not a bad corporate citizen; because it is not a citizen at all.  This idea of a “corporate citizen “is just a bad idea.  It doesn’t show much understanding of either corporations or citizens.  In Civilizing the Economy, I outline four aspects of a corporation or four ways we can think about them: as property, as a human community designed to produce goods and services, as an agent, and as a provider.

Let’s look at the idea that a corporation is a property first.  Obviously it is.  We can buy and sell them.  Milton Friedman’s famous essay that the only social responsibility of corporations is to make a profit treats corporations this way.  Friedman is not really talking about the obligations of corporations in this essay, but of the corporate executives who exist in an agent-principle relationship with the owners.  Corporations are the property of the owners, and the executive has an obligation to the owners.  Executives are essentially property managers.