Beyond consequences and duties: a social contract argument for business ethics

Business ethics is often framed as a problem of managerial discretion or outcome evaluation. However, markets are institutional structures that require public justification under conditions of pluralism. The paper asks which normative framework can provide such justification while generating determinate guidance. Consequentialist and deontological approaches are shown to underdetermine institutional evaluation due to failures of attribution, public ordering, and agent-dependence, while institutional alternatives remain insufficient for the task of public institutional justification. In response, the paper advances a Rawlsian social contract framework as the best fit, as it provides public justification, evaluates institutions through the basic structure, and generates determinate principles. The central finding is that stakeholder claims are more accurately understood as claims of citizens, and that business ethics is best conceived as a problem of institutional justice.