Whereas much research has discussed the cultural conditioning of CSR practices and understandings, this article adopts a cultural perspective on the justification of CSR. The article illustrates the normative and instrumental justification of CSR in political rhetoric, using the Swedish case as an example. By analyzing the underlying assumptions of political CSR justification, it goes beyond present illustrations of CSR justification in normative and instrumental terms. The article points to the strong role of culture as a self-reflective phenomenon in the justification of CSR. A political conviction found in the case is the belief in a reliable, robust and attractive welfare state value base in Scandinavian companies that can be exported to remote countries through trade and business activities. In justifying CSR and in defining its functionality, politicians in Scandinavia assert the uniqueness and superiority of their own cultural values in a questionable way. CSR justification becomes a way of contrasting cultures against each other.