Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reason why the UK becomes the leader of CSR. In order to examine this matter more closely, I will first study prior researches and show the frameworks to analyze the CSR in relation to government policy. Then I will analyze the relationship between CSR and the UK government policies based on three case studies. The policy of the Thatcher government brought about spiraling unemployment and inner-city decay in the early 1980s. Business leaders, who received huge benefits from the government policy at that time, aggressively pursued the CSR through the participation of BITC in order to acquire the social license to operate. The Blair government, which pushed forward the Third Way policy, actively encouraged with CSR in order to strengthen the competitiveness of UK global businesses. Good examples are the case of ETI (supermarket chains, closing retailers) and EITI (extractive industries).
