ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the observations of the changing expectations to corporate legitimacy since the 1960s, with the main focus on Denmark. It examines the conflict between society and environment, the problem being society's increasing strains on human beings and nature, finding solutions such as the triple bottom line. The chapter explores the increasing gap between organizations as society's predominant decisions-makers and those affected by the decisions, also known as the risk-danger dichotomy, promoting calls for social responsibility, accountability, transparency and sustainability measures. It discusses the increasing independence with and consequent interdependence between society's differentiated functional systems, which activate solutions such as increasingly complex stakeholder models and polygenous partnerships. The chapter explains the challenges to politics in coordinating an increasingly complex and diverse society, which activate reflexive law and political initiatives such as polygenous policy networks and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in order to encourage corporate self-constraints.
