Virtue, Virtú, Categorical Imperative and the Civic Constitution: Defining Corporate Governance

As we proceed toward the twenty-first century issues of corporate governance are as important as ever. Unscrupulous business activities, during the late eighties and early nineties, undermined director integrity and emphasised short-termism rather than sustainable economic performance. In an attempt to provide an underpinning for modern corporate governance this article turns toward Western philosophy and draws on the ideas of antiquity, Machiavelli and Kant. The article uses these philosophers to construct a moral framework as a basis for analysing contemporary ideas of corporate governance. It attempts to link the concepts of corporate governance and virtue and investigate how in the pursuit of a ubiquitous idea of good governance philosophers of antiquity were faced with the same difficulties as those of Renaissance and Enlightenment. Indeed, how they were confronted with difficulties very similar to those faced by contemporary society.