Integrative Social Contracts Theory

Question 1

Decision Rule

Answer 1

Action does not violate a global hypernorm or local authentic norm

Question 2

Biggest Pro

Answer 2

Adapts to variations in local norms within some global limits

Question 3

Biggest Con

Answer 3

Local norms are vague and may give actors too much flexibility

Question 4

Business and the Social Contract

Answer 4

Citizens develop implicit social contracts and expectations among themselves as they navigate their way through society

• Neither legally enforced nor actually negotiated
• Basis for creating moral understandings
• May be between various types of communities, such as big business and society at large

Question 5

Thomas Donaldson and Thomas W. Dunfee are concerned that…

Answer 5

traditional ethical theories are too abstract and broad to provide concrete advice for specific challenges, such as whether or not to accept gifts in business dealings

Question 6

Donaldson and Dunfee acknowledge a need for overarching norms that they call “hypernorms;”

Answer 6

without these, standards of professional ethics become completely relative to the local norms that shape those standards

• designed to guide business and economic life
• set limits on the obligations that micro contracts can create
• They believe that hypernorms include human rights to personal freedom, physical security, political participation, informed consent, ownership, subsistence, and a general obligation to respect a person’s dignity

Question 7

Authentic norms

Answer 7

Built from the ground up historically within specific regions and communities, “authentic norms” have the tremendous advantage of providing specific advice in business ethics - an important feature that general and broad ethical theories lack

Question 8

Donaldson and Dunfee believe the following principles will emerge from the “macro-social contract:”

Answer 8

1) Local economic communities may specify ethical norms for their members through micro-social contracts
2) Norm-specifying microsocial contracts must be grounded in informed consent buttressed by a right of exit, which establishes their authenticity
3) In order to be legitimate and obligatory, a microsocial contract norm must be compatible with hypernorms

Question 9

By imposing “hypernorm” limits on the otherwise general acceptance of ethical norms in other cultures…

Answer 9

ISCT embraces neither ethical relativism nor ethical imperialism