2 Postdoc positions in the research program ‘The Business Corporation as a Political Actor’ (1.0 FTE; 2,5 years)

Companies are regulated by politics, but they also shape the political arena themselves, whenever they influence politicians and political parties. Moreover, companies fulfill public functions such as providing public goods, regulating their own business activities, or addressing societal problems, like environmental harms. Can this mix of private activity and public responsibility be legitimate, in a democratic society? Aren't corporations given too much political power? Are multinationals different in this respect from other companies? These questions are central in the recently awarded ERC Consolidator Grant project ‘The Business Corporation as a Political Actor’. 

The project is based on the hypothesis that a new social contract is necessary to make the public role of contemporary corporations legitimate. This requires transplanting notions traditionally used for legitimizing states – like respecting human rights, democratic procedures, and standards of social justice – to corporations. Is this possible? To answer this question, the project engages in a philosophical reflection on the possibilities to apply existing political theories of legitimacy to corporations. This is combined with practical case studies on different types of regulation of corporate activity: corporate governance regulating, tax policies, and competition law, etc. Home base of the project is Political Philosophy, but its aim is to integrate insights from other disciplines, such as law, economics, political science and history. 

You will be working under the supervision of the Program Leader, Rutger Claassen, as part of a research team consisting of two PhD candidates and two Postdoctoral Researchers. You will play an active role in the research team, organize and take part in workshops, public events and other activities. The positions are based at the Ethics Institute, which is part of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies of Utrecht University, which provides a stimulating and internationally oriented research environment. All positions start at 1 September 2020. 
Postdoc position 1: ‘Transnational Corporations and Globalization’ (2,5 years, 1.0 FTE)
The first Postdoc position addresses the exercise of political power by, specifically, transnational corporations. It asks the question whether the complexities that arise when corporations operate in several countries change the (application of) legitimacy conditions such as the rule of law, democracy and justice, compared to corporations only operating in one domestic context. Furthermore, the sub project will normatively evaluate the current global regime of trade and investment rules and ask whether different cultures have different notions of justice to evaluate the outcomes of such trade and investment practices.

Postdoc position 2: ‘Economic Theories of the Corporation‘ (2,5 years, 1.0 FTE)
The second Postdoc position is on a project which seeks to integrate insights from prevailing economic theories of the firm into the discussion about a politically legitimate role of corporations. Can economic theories account for corporate power? To what extent do economic constraints arising from market competition make it more difficult to render corporate political power legitimate? Moreover, the sub project will evaluate whether competition law/policy ought to remain focused (as it has been) on criteria of economic efficiency, or rather whether it ought to be refocusing on combatting political power; and if the latter, how.

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