Monitoring Multinationals: Lessons from the Anti-Apartheid Era

In: Politics & society, Volume 31, Issue 3, p. 381-406

Abstract

This article examines the construction and implementation of the Sullivan Principles, a two-decade effort to use corporate codes of conduct to improve the behavior of multinational corporations in South Africa under apartheid. Without organized social movement pressure, corporations would not have agreed to adopt the code, and corporate compliance required sustained pressure from the anti-apartheid movement. The system's independent monitoring process was problematic, and managers' definitions of "good corporate citizenship" were more guided by monitors'emphases than by substantive concerns. Based on the historic case, the article raises questions about the voluntaristic, stateless character of transnational corporate codes of conduct and questions whether such codes offer a viable strategy for improving working conditions.