Les voies d'une refondation du capitalisme. Une responsabilité élargie et une rémunération spécifique de la fonction de contrôle actionnarial

The role of shareholders in modern capitalism should remember its historical roots. Legal analysis of the economic system is privileged in the paper. Corporation is the legal tool of modern capitalism; it introduces a liability limited to the stock held by shareholders. Paradoxically it may have developed some form of irresponsibility at the firm level. The current situation shows that controlling shareholders or controlling blocks are frequent either in large or in family firms. This situation should not be regarded as a failure but as a characteristic of modern capitalism. It gives an opportunity to reorganize the system of corporate responsibility and to introduce the idea of Social Corporate Responsibility (SCR) in its scope. As a consequence, it is proposed that these new responsibilities and risks should be paid for and that a specific right to profit should be given to those shareholders who will assume them.