In this introductory paper for the special issue “Government and the Governance of Business Conduct: Implications for Management and Organization”, we focus on government as an institution in the broader context of the governance of business conduct. We review the longevity and heterogeneity of governmental actors along with, and in relation to, the evolving role and place of business and civil society actors under the double challenge of privatization and globalization over the last three to four decades. In so doing we track the evolution of government’s primary governance roles. We suggest that part of the organization and management scholarship builds upon problematic assumptions when it comes to the role(s) of government in the governance of business conduct. We suggest that while governments might be losing some power, they are also acquiring and deploying it in other areas; that governments are taking on new governance roles in relation to business conduct; that government regulation may contribute positively to the governance of business conduct; and that government is an ever-important focus for management and organizational research. We show how the six contributing papers to the Special Issue both illustrate these arguments and reveal new roles for government in the contemporary governance of business conduct. We end by proposing a research agenda for the further exploration of government in governance.

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This paper presents the International Panel on Social Progress and expounds key ideas from its first report, Rethinking Society for the 21 st Century (Cambridge U. P., 2018). It emphasizes the importance of three dimensions of progress on which serious challenges need to be addressed: equity, freedom and sustainability. Addressing these challenges primarily requires reforming power and governance structures in the economy, society, and politics.The linear view of progress promised by the Enlightenment was deeply weakened by the horrors of the 20th Century. It has also, according to Wagner (2016), lost momentum after the abolition of most forms of formal domination (serfdom, slavery, female subordination). And the profound ecological, social and technological disruptions of our contemporary world would only come to reinforce, it seems, a widespread disillusion with the idea of progress. But Wagner identifies three ways in which progress can (and should) be revived and reoriented for the 21 st century: 1) building democratic agency; 2) overcoming new kinds of domination; 3) avoiding hubris (in our interaction with Nature).