Reflexivity and The UK Corporate Governance Code
The UK Corporate Governance Code, based on self-regulation and soft law functions as a blueprint for the development of Codes of Corporate Governance outside the UK. The Code derives much of its legitimation from claims to reflexitivity. We take a closer look at these claims to reflexivity and find that they fail on three levels. We argue that the Code, along with its claims to reflexivity, serves mostly to legitimize and codify a very particular type of political economy. Taking a closer look at the historical embedding of the Code and the development of corporate governance theory in the UK allows to develop a broader basis to understand what corporate governance is and who it is for. It also allows to show that these broader claims are important for the development of corporate governance codes internationally.