The clash of economic ideas: The great policy debates and experiments of the last hundred years, by Lawrence H White
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702014521566 |
| Date | 01 March 2014 |
| Published date | 01 March 2014 |
| Author | Neil A Burron |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
under the CSR banner. Despite its feel-good implications, the nature of CSR, as
subsequent authors note, is to be a tool, like tax practices, that corporations can
often manipulate to raise their profile socially and to grow their consumer base.
Consistent with this line of reasoning, Stuart Cooper studies four examples illus-
trating how a proposal for effective CSR ultimately fails when corporations quickly
exploit various resources (human and natural) and then move on before CSR
practices are established. Alan Murray and Kathryn Haynes conclude the book
by reminding readers that although many companies spare little effort to flaunt
their supposedly philanthropic efforts, a truly comprehensive approach to CSR,
social justice, and accountability remains rare. With no clear definition of CSR,
corporations tend to modify their actions and reporting to present a competitive
and favourable result.
Other aspects of CSR which are covered in the volume in much less detail are
issues of human rights, the introduction of theoretical frameworks that could fur-
ther our understanding of CSR, and a broader range of case study examples.
Overall, this volume intends to inform its readers and encourage improved cor-
porate behaviour. As a research handbook, it includes all areas where corporations
engage with emerging CSR principles (for better or for worse), illustrating the
breadth of CSR actions and articulating how these can be manipulated or
framed, resulting in significant public misinformation about international corpor-
ate behaviour. Ultimately, the editors draw attention to the problems and chal-
lenges that exist in international business practices and appeal for greater academic
research to develop knowledge and best practices to achieve real change. From the
point of view of its policy implications, the big take-away from the book is the
significance of taxation policies and the need for such policies to drive socially
responsible corporate behaviour.
Lawrence H White
The clash of economic ideas: The great policy debates and experiments of the last hundred
years
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 428pp., £30.00 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-107-
62133-6
Reviewed by: Neil A Burron, political scientist and independent researcher
The history of modern economic thought—like that of many of the social sciences
—has been characterized by long periods of consensus punctuated by paradigm
reversals and the rise of new orthodoxies. Outside of each consensus, there remain
the dissenters, skeptics, and critics, some of whom are lucky enough eventually to
receive their day of vindication when the new paradigm takes its place. Thus, the
history of twentieth-century economic thought can be written in terms of the
debate between laissez-faire, on the one hand, and the mixed economy, socialism,
or some other variant of central planning, on the other, with different economic
theories holding sway depending upon changing historical circumstances.
Lawrence White resurrects the personalities and ideas behind these debates and
Book Reviews 123
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