Hayek on corporate social responsibility

Hayek published a piece in 1960 that criticized corporate social responsibility as a norm for economic organizations, although he regarded corporate actions to be subject to essentially the same moral rules as individual action. This article identifies and reorganizes Hayek’s criticisms of social justice, the rule of law and morality, his comparison of the open society and the closed society, and his treatment of charity and altruism. The aim is to clarify the Hayekian perspective on CSR. These considerations explain why the ‘social’ perspective on responsibility is considered dangerous in a free society, how to separate legal compliance and morality from concerns about social justice.