ABSTRACT
The debate over the proper social role of corporate enterprise did not break fully into the open until the 1960s, when a more critical assessment of business achievements and pretensions became possible. In the meantime, doubtful businessmen and other observers of the business system were laying the foundations for a reassessment of both the ideology and the practice of corporate social responsibility. The idea that American business had a responsibility to defend private initiative and voluntary institutions on all fronts had many sources. It derived in part from the nation's historic faith in its mission to uphold the ideals of liberty and democracy before the world. Not all American businessmen hesitated at the awe-inspiring prospects opened by the enlarged concept of managerial trusteeship. Loyalty to custom, a sense of the limitations of management's capacities, and allegiance to democratic values kept many executives from wholehearted acceptance of the new theories.
