Schneider, Oliver
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Publication Access status: Open Access , Deliberative Democracy and the Political Corporation - Critical Perspectives on Transparency and Regulation in the Context of Business and Human Rights(2026-07-09)This dissertation investigates how companies contribute to corporate accountability for human rights through their interaction with society across three discursive arenas: stakeholder engagement, formal disclosure, and public governance. Drawing on Habermas’ theory of communicative action and deliberative democracy, it comprises four independent papers that explore the interconnectedness of these levels. The first paper presents a structured literature review, revealing that business and human rights remain a niche, highly fragmented topic in academic accounting discourse. The second paper utilizes critical discourse analysis to evaluate corporate reporting on civil society engagement. It reveals significant communicative distortions across Habermasian validity claims, notably through dispersed information (comprehensibility) , marginalization of vulnerable value-chain actors (legitimacy) , manipulative connotative language (sincerity) , and unassured multiple reporting media (truth). The third paper validates these structural deficiencies through interviews with European experts, highlighting that incomplete data and brand-management practices severely undermine corporate transparency. The fourth paper examines the discursive legitimacy of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). It traces how a balanced provisional agreement was systematically watered down in its final 2025 text and the subsequent Omnibus initiative due to opaque lobbying by a small number of powerful economic actors. Ultimately, the dissertation warns of a European business and human rights crisis. Voluntary, market-based steering is ineffective due to distorted communication, while regulatory correctives are captured by corporate power. The author recommends viewing transparency and behavioral duties as complementary components of a "smart policy mix" , alongside reforms in management education and democratic lobbying practices.Source Type:Doctoral Thesis4 19
