Democracy

Extensive research has shown: right- and left-wing populists both lead to lower stock returns and higher inflation. Here’s why — and what businesses can do.

Five years after the Business Roundtable’s call for companies to pursue more than just profit, enthusiasm has dwindled. Here’s why they should recommit.

Articles and podcast episodes on speaking up, employee activism, and politics.

Some ways your company can improve the system without being partisan.

Dissolve corporate PACs, end lobbying, and advocate for legislative reform.

Platforms profit from the extreme voices and conspiracy theories that their algorithms amplify. It’s time for U.S. regulations to reckon with that.

Three actions leaders can take to promote honest discourse and healthy civic engagement.

Lessons from the front lines

A conversation between Jill Lepore and Rebecca Henderson

Commercial imperatives are at odds with democratic objectives. What would a new financial model look like?

Scholars from around the world weigh in.

Why free markets need free politics

Belle Epoque elitism is back.

Is every democracy destined for the problems of Greece? In writing Passion & Purpose, my coauthors and I heard a lot about the traits and aspirations of the next generation of leaders. But we also heard a great deal about their concerns. A key anxiety is debt. Not just student loan debt or credit card […]

I’m in India now, and have been in China a couple of times recently. One can’t help compare the two societies in terms of their likelihood of dominating the future global economy. They have, of course, certain obvious things in common: the billions of citizens, the growth of a huge middle class, and the global […]

This post is based on the new book, Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes For Better Democracy, by John A. Quelch and Katherine E. Jocz, now available from Harvard Business Press. Marketing is often dismissed. CEOs and CFOs claim it isn’t rigorous. Consumer advocates find it deceptive and intrusive. Sociologists contend it encourages self-centered materialism. […]

Modern telecommunications makes as big a difference to the Third-World poor as literacy or high-yield agriculture.

Cynical observers have always been fond of pointing out that business leaders who extol the virtues of democracy on ceremonial occasions would be the last to think of applying them to their own organizations. To the extent that this is true, however, it reflects a state of mind that is by no means peculiar to […]