341 Catalina Ruiz-Rico Ruiz The armed forces and the current model of social... underestimated from a legal perspective, as it involves voluntary initiatives that add in a further layer, beyond the legal obligations.1 In parallel, social responsibility is positioned between the law and ethics, skirting legal controls and without legal pressure. However, the legal importance of social responsibility is not limited to the integration of issues related to the law, such as human rights, equality, efficiency or transparency, but rather goes as far as pushing for practices that go beyond what is currently regulated, and converting this model into a compass for future legislative reforms. With this in mind, a legal process of juridification of social responsibility has begun, ushering in the integration of this model to the public sector. Starting from its conception as a voluntary model limited initially to the private sector, it has evolved into becoming a legal uptake of the principles and duties intrinsic to the social responsibility model and into being implemented in administrations and institutions. The administrative and institutional singularities require the reconversion of certain aspects of corporate SR, replacing the focus on interest groups for social interest and citizens’ demands.2 Accordingly, the voluntary integration of social concerns and the demands of citizens as regards the decisions made by public powers requires the development of a socially responsible model. The Armed Forces, therefore, represent a suitable platform for social responsibility due to their institutional autonomy.3 The Army’s commitment to modernisation has required ongoing reforms in areas integral to social responsibility, as will be analysed in the following sections.4 1 For YERA/PINA, “The social demand of public social responsibility”, Research Document DI-851, April 2010, p. 5, “the idea that a public organisation should take responsibility for its actions is not a new one – laws and regulations already exist for this. What is different, and where organisational efforts should be based, is the social awareness that this corporate responsibility exists and that it should be respected even when not required by law; so, taking responsibility for all actions, independently of whether there is a legal obligation to do so or not. All public employees, not just top management, should be clearly involved”. 2 Vid. PINO, A., “Organisational Social Responsibility Model in Public Administration”, Publicaciones Técnicas, p. 3, “recognising that as regards the transversality of public administration, citizens in general have doubtless changed, both in societal make-up, as well as in citizens’ aspirations and demands that have to be incorporated as variables in public administration processes.” 3 PINO underlines, op. cit., p. 4, “pointing out that Organisational Social Responsibility has two broad channels of action. On the one hand, there is the organisation’s own social responsibility, which goes far beyond its obligations, just as a company’s social responsibility goes far beyond mere compliance with the law. On the other hand, there is the role that the public sector should play in developing and promoting OSR, both in companies as well as in the community”. 4 According to KIMBERLEY ASCOLI/ TAMAR BENZAKEN, Public Policy and the Promotion http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
Revista del IEEE 6
To see the actual publication please follow the link above