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This paper assesses possibilities for the future of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the mid and long term. It argues that CSR is at the juncture of its development. CSR can become a tool of corporations to be used tactically to defuse criticism and protect their image or it can become an effective tool in truly democratic societies to make corporations socially and environmentally responsible by creating a sustainable business ethos.

The report argues that:

• the future of market societies is not sustainable, because governments have abandoned their responsibility to democracy and the welfare of society
• this ethos will therefore be radically transformed by society to build a new paradigm that redefines the purpose of business
• redefining the end of business will require the complete redefinition of the purpose of democracy and societies
• society is already seeking to build an ethos of real and direct democracy, participative and bottom up, that places social welfare above the private interest.

The paper concludes that in this way, the future of CSR, as such, will disappear to assimilate itself to the paradigmatic shift in which social welfare becomes the primary purpose of business, governed by universal laws and standards that rule its activity.

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