Business Ethics, Illiberalism, and the New Democratic Order in the Digital Age

Éditeurs invités

• Andreas Georg Scherer, University of Zurich
• Peter Bloom, University of Essex
• Cristina Neesham, Newcastle University
• Yuan Li, Saint Mary's College of California

Synthèse

The purpose of this Special Issue is to examine the ongoing transformations of democratic societies by analyzing the political and ideological projects that position themselves against liberal democracy—be they postliberalism, (techno-)feudalism, (tech-)fascism, and other variants of illiberalism. It investigates the evolving roles of the state, executive power, digital technologies, media industries, social movements, and other non-state actors, while questioning how the moral and political responsibilities of business must be redefined amid democratic backsliding. The emerging illiberal context is marked by exclusionary practices, the erosion of participatory and deliberative norms, the refusal to recognize legitimate actors and positions, assertions of absolute truths, the rise of transgressive publics and politics, and sustained attacks on democratic institutions. While preserving the appearance of democratic legitimacy, these practices in effect consolidate a more illiberal and authoritarian form of democratic order.

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Thèmes proposés

• Corporate–state alliances in illiberal or hybrid regimes
• Technological infrastructures of authoritarianism and/or technocratic power (surveillance, algorithmic governance, platform monopolies)
• Corporate influence on public spheres, media ecosystems, and democratic deliberation
• Historical lessons from business involvement in interwar fascism
• Postliberal and technocratic ideologies shaping contemporary corporate governance
• Political CSR under conditions of eroding/decaying democracy
• Organizational culture, leadership, and the normalization of authoritarian values
• Moral agency, dissent, and resistance inside firms against illiberal corporatism
• How do contemporary corporate policies and practices contribute to authoritarian consolidation, postliberal governance, and illiberal forms of democracy?
• In what ways do managerial logics (efficiency, obedience, strong leadership) intersect with authoritarian or proto-fascist political ideologies?
• How do digital platforms function as political actors shaping public discourse, identity formation, and democratic norms?
• What forms of corporate complicity or resistance emerge in contexts of rising identity politics, far-right populism, disinformation, and illiberal governance?
• How should business ethics reconceptualize corporate political responsibility when liberal-democratic assumptions no longer hold?
• How do illiberal ideologies such as postliberalism, technofeudalism, cyberlibertarianism, or nationalist capitalism reconfigure corporate legitimacy?
• How do autocratic leaders and change agents use rhetorical tropes, arguments, and symbols to make meaning and influence a reality, to enact crises or states of emergency, and to construct a boundary between 'us' and 'them'?
• What normative frameworks can guide responsible corporate behavior under conditions of weakened institutions, captured states, or authoritarian drift?