Résumé

If we cannot deny the importance to engage in social responsibility for all kinds of organisations, be they SMEs or NGOs, much more is at stake when it comes to multinational enterprises. The multinational dimension of MNEs suggests a specific role to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) given the challenges of regulation at the international level. To fully understand this role, it is necessary to move beyond the traditional dichotomy between the state and the market often used to depict the challenge of regulation at this level. International regulation is less a matter of an equilibrium between the state and the market than an articulation and interaction of states’ logic and politics with decisions of economic actors about where to invest, what kind of development to favour or broader normative issues to address. It is true that the market dynamics can have an impact on behaviours and choices, but we often forget that these market dynamics are framed by political and strategic decisions made by states as well as by major economic actors, be they multinationals or financial organisations. Frequently mediated by global or multilateral institutions, these decisions are intertwined in an ongoing dialogue with NGOs at the international level.