¹ Masconale, Saura and Sepe, Simone, “Citizen Corp.: Corporate Activism and Democracy,” Washington University Law Review 100 (2022): 257 Google Scholar.

² Bhagwhat, Yashoda et al., “Corporate Sociopolitical Activism and Firm Value,” Journal of Marketing 84, no. 5 (2020): 1Google Scholar.

³ About which, see, e.g., Bhagwhat et al., “Corporate Sociopolitical Activism and Firm Value,” 1.

⁴ See, e.g., Masconale and Sepe, “Citizen Corp.”; Saura Masconale and Simone Sepe, “Corporate Activism, Economic Efficiency, and Democracy,” Revue Europeenne du Droit 4, no. 1 (2022): 37–43.

⁵ Lechterman, Theodore M., Jenkins, Ryan, and Strawser, Bradley J., “#StopHateForProfit and the Ethics of Boycotting by Corporations,” Journal of Business Ethics 191, no. 1 (2023): 77–91 Google Scholar.

⁶ Saunders-Hastings, Emma, “Economic Power and Democratic Forbearance,” in Wealth and Power: Philosophical Perspectives, ed. Bennett, Michael, Brouwer, Huub, and Classen, Rutger (New York: Routledge, 2022), 186–205 Google Scholar.

⁷ Talisse, Robert, Overdoing Democracy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 74 Google Scholar.

⁸ Known as “shareholder capitalism,” this view receives powerful expression in Milton Friedman’s classic “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” New York Times, September 13, 1970, https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/a-friedman-doctrine-the-social-responsibility-of-business-is-to.html.

⁹ Larry Fink, “A Sense of Purpose,” BlackRock, 2018, https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/2018-larry-fink-ceo-letter.

¹⁰ Masconale and Sepe, “Citizen Corp.,” 262.

¹¹ We could draw further distinctions. A company might engage in activism in order to boost profits; call that profit-motivated activism. A company might engage in activism because that seems to be the (morally and politically) right thing to do; call that values-motivated activism. A company might engage in activism for both kinds of reasons; call that profit-and-values-motivated activism. These distinctions, while interesting and important, do not affect my critique. I am worried that corporate activism—however motivated—undermines political equality and unhelpfully overpoliticizes everything. These objections go through regardless of why corporations engage in activism. What matters for my argument is what activist corporations do, not why they do it. Accordingly, I set these distinctions aside in what follows. On the strategic logic of profit-motivated activism, see Gangopadhyay, Shubhashis and Homroy, Swarnodeep, “Strategic CEO Activism in Polarized Markets,” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 60, no. 2 (2025): 617–57Google Scholar.

¹² Andrew Winston, “Why Business Leaders Must Resist the Anti-ESG Movement,” Harvard Business Review, April 5, 2023, https://hbr.org/2023/04/why-business-leaders-must-resist-the-anti-esg-movement.

¹³ Henderson, Rebecca, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire (New York: PublicAffairs, 2020), 27 Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Darel Paul, “The Puzzle of Woke Capital,” American Affairs 6, no. 3 (2022), https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2022/08/the-puzzle-of-woke-capital/. See also Masconale and Sepe, “Citizen Corp.,” 278ff.

¹⁵ Ross Douthat, “The Rise of Woke Capital,” New York Times, February 28, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/opinion/corporate-america-activism.html.

¹⁶ I am indebted to Masconale and Sepe for the “megaphone” metaphor. See Masconale and Sepe, “Citizen Corp.,” 266, 310. They also discuss activist corporations’ ability to veto disliked legislation, an ability they call the “bargaining effect.” See Masconale and Sepe, “Citizen Corp.,” 266, 311. Saunders-Hastings develops similar ideas in her “Economic Power and Forbearance,” as do Lechterman, Jenkins, and Strawser in their “#StopHateForProfit.”

¹⁷ Hussain, Waheed, “Is Ethical Consumerism an Impermissible Form of Vigilantism?” Philosophy & Public Affairs 40, no. 2 (2012): 118 Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Recent works committed to (something like) this idea include Hussain, “Is Ethical Consumerism an Impermissible Form of Vigilantism?”; Saunders-Hastings, Emma, Private Virtues, Public Vices: Philanthropy and Democratic Equality (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2022)Google Scholar; Lechterman, Theodore, The Tyranny of Generosity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022)Google Scholar; Wilson, James Lindley, “Making the All-Affected Principle Safe for Democracy,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 50, no. 2 (2022): 169–201 Google Scholar.

¹⁹ As Masconale and Sepe, “Citizen Corp.,” 277, put this point, “[c]hoosing a society’s ends is the role of citizens.”

²⁰ For important expositions of this idea, see, e.g., Brighouse, Harry, “Egalitarianism and Equal Availability of Political Influence,” Journal of Political Philosophy 4, no. 2 (1996): 118–41Google Scholar; Brighouse, Harry, “Political Equality and the Funding of Political Speech,” Social Theory and Practice 21, no. 3 (1995): 473–500 Google Scholar; Rawls, John, A Theory of Justice, rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999)Google Scholar; Cohen, Joshua, “Money, Politics, Political Equality,” in Fact and Value: Essays on Ethics and Metaphysics for Judith Jarvis Thomson, ed. Byrne, Alex, Stalnaker, Robert, and Wedgwood, Ralph (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001), 47–80 Google Scholar.

²¹ Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 194–200.

²² Still other readers might reject my Rawlsian “equal say” account as too inegalitarian. Why should the influence of money on political power bother us, but not the influence of charisma or physical attractiveness? Perhaps, pace Rawls, we should seek to neutralize the impact of all these inequalities—whether economic or “natural”—on a person’s capacity to shape politics. Brighouse defends something like this view in his “Egalitarianism and Equal Availability of Political Influence,” citing Habermas as inspiration. Fortunately, I do not need to adjudicate this dispute between (moderately egalitarian) Rawls and (radically egalitarian) Brighouse/Habermas. Both camps agree that economic power should not be decisive for politics—and that is the claim I need for my argument.

²³ Saunders-Hastings, Private Virtues, Public Vices, 74.

²⁴ Saunders-Hastings, Private Virtues, Public Vices, 72.

²⁵ Saunders-Hastings, “Economic Power and Democratic Forbearance,” 194.

²⁶ Lechterman, Jenkins, and Strawser, “#StopHateForProfit.”

²⁷ Lechterman, Jenkins, and Strawser, “#StopHateForProfit.”

²⁸ STARBUCKS COFFEE (@Starbucks), TWITTER (April 20, 2021, 6:29 PM), https://twitter.com/Starbucks/status/1384680708271087620.

²⁹ Leslie Josephs, “Delta CEO Blasts Georgia Voting Law,” CNBC, March 31, 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/31/delta-ceo-blasts-georgia-voting-law-after-backlash-on-social-media.html#:~:text=Delta’s%20CEO%2C%20Ed%20Bastian%2C%20said,considerably%20during%20the%20legislative%20process.%E2%80%9D.

³⁰ Tim Meads, “Corporate America Has Donated $82 Billion to BLM-Related Causes So Far,” Daily Wire, March 14, 2023, https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-analysis-corporate-america-has-donated-82-billion-to-blm-related-causes-so-far.

³¹ “Comcast NBCUniversal Celebrates Pride Month,” Comcast, June 1, 2021, https://corporate.comcast.com/stories/comcast-nbcuniversal-celebrates-pride-month-2021.

³² “Netflix’s Big Idea to Support Black Businesses,” The New York Times, June 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/business/dealbook/netflix-black-owned-banks.html.

³³ Henderson, Reimagining Capitalism, 44.

³⁴ Monica Davey and Laurie Goodstein, “Religion Laws Quickly Fall into Retreat in Indiana and Arkansas,” The New York Times, April 2, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/us/rights-laws-quickly-fall-into-retreat.html#:~:text=But%20on%20Thursday%2C%20as%20the,and%20corporate%20leaders%20from%20Eli.

³⁵ Tony Cook, Tom LoBianco, and Brian Eason, “Gov. Mike Pence Signs RFRA Fix,” IndyStar, April 1, 2015, https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2015/04/01/indiana-rfra-deal-sets-limited-protections-for-lgbt/70766920/.

³⁶ Jeff Swiatek, “Salesforce Packed a Punch in Galvanizing RFRA Opposition,” IndyStar, April 2, 2015, https://www.indystar.com/story/money/2015/04/02/salesforce-packed-punch-galvanizing-rfra-opposition/70842680/.

³⁷ Cook, LoBianco, and Eason, “Gov. Mike Pence Signs RFRA Fix.”

³⁸ Patrick Deneen, Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future (New York: Sentinel, 2023), 55.

³⁹ Tim Evans, “Angie’s List Canceling Eastside Expansion Over RFRA,” IndyStar, March 28, 2015, https://www.indystar.com/story/money/2015/03/28/angies-list-canceling-eastside-expansion-rfra/70590738/.

⁴⁰ Henderson, Reimagining Capitalism, 44. Notice that my argument does not assume that corporations always—or even frequently—use this power. I do not have to take a stand on that issue. This is because I am defending a conditional: if corporations use their veto button, then they undermine democracy by subverting democratically chosen outputs. I am making a philosophical claim about the normative implications of corporate vetoes, not an empirical claim about their frequency.

⁴¹ Henderson, Reimagining Capitalism, 44.

⁴² Henderson, Reimagining Capitalism, 44.

⁴³ As mentioned in footnote 40, I do not mean to suggest that corporations veto every disliked policy. They tolerate many suboptimal political outcomes, I am sure. For instance, public corporate pushback against Trumpian nativism and protectionism seemed, to this observer, surprisingly meek. Perhaps Globocorp was mashing its veto button and wearing out its megaphone behind the scenes? Another possibility is that Trump, being long on rhetoric and short on policy, did not really threaten Chamber of Commerce values in any substantive way. Hence, corporate silence.

⁴⁴ See, e.g., Lindblom, Charles, “The Market as Prison,” The Journal of Politics 44, no. 2 (1982): 324–36Google Scholar; Schweickart, David, After Capitalism, 2nd ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011), 157 Google Scholar; Arnold, Samuel, “Capitalism, Class Conflict, and Domination,” Socialism and Democracy 31, no. 1 (2017): 106–24Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ For development of this theme, see Fan, Jennifer S., “Woke Capital: The Role of Corporations in Social Movements,” Harvard Business Law Review 9, no. 2 (2019): 441–94Google Scholar. See also discussion by Masconale and Sepe, “Citizen Corp.,” 273–75.

⁴⁶ Let me introduce a bit of jargon here. Say that A’s decision mirrors B’s preference when A chooses as B would want A to choose. Say that this mirroring is robust when it is resilient across (some wide, if not unlimited, range of) changes in B’s preferences. So, A’s decision robustly mirrors B’s preference when (i) A chooses the option that B prefers and (ii) this alignment is no accident; for some suitably wide range of options, if B preferred that option, then A would choose it instead.

⁴⁷ Lydia Saad, “U.S. Political Ideology Steady; Conservatives, Moderates Tie,” Gallup, January 17, 2022, https://news.gallup.com/poll/388988/political-ideology-steady-conservatives-moderates-tie.aspx#:~:text=On%20average%20last%20year%2C%2037,as%20conservative%2C%20moderate%20and%20liberal.

⁴⁸ For instructive discussion of echo chambers and epistemic bubbles, see Nguyen, C. Thi, “Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles,” Episteme 17, no. 2 (2020): 141–61Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ “Five major studies … found that the percentage of self-identified conservatives ranges between 5% and 17% in the social sciences and between 4% and 8% in the humanities.” Shields, Jon A. and Dunn, Joshua M. Sr. Passing on the Right: Conservative Professors in the Progressive University (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016)Google Scholar, 2. Also see Whittington, Keith, “The Value of Ideological Diversity among University Faculty,” Social Philosophy & Policy 37, no. 2 (2021): 90–113 Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ As Jonathan Haidt puts this point: “The academy has been so focused on attaining diversity by race and gender (which are valuable) that it has created a hostile climate for people who think differently. The American Academy has—arguably—become a politically orthodox and quasi-religious institution.” Jonathan Haidt, “Viewpoint Diversity in the Academy,” https://righteousmind.com/viewpoint-diversity/.

⁵¹ Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Kiley Hurst, and Dana Braga, “Support for the Black Lives Matter Movement Has Dropped Considerably from Its Peak in 2020,” Pew Research Center, June 14, 2023, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/06/14/support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement-has-dropped-considerably-from-its-peak-in-2020/.

⁵² “Deep Divisions in Americans’ Views of Nation’s Racist History—and How to Address It,” Pew Research Center, August 12, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/08/12/deep-divisions-in-americans-views-of-nations-racial-history-and-how-to-address-it/.

⁵³ Frank Newport, “Affirmative Action and Public Opinion,” Gallup, August 7, 2020, https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/317006/affirmative-action-public-opinion.aspx?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email.

⁵⁴ “More Americans Disapprove Than Approve of Colleges Considering Race, Ethnicity in Admissions Decisions,” Pew Research Center, June 8, 2023, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/06/08/more-americans-disapprove-than-approve-of-colleges-considering-race-ethnicity-in-admissions-decisions/.

⁵⁵ Gabriel Borelli, “About Six-in-Ten Americans Say Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage Is Good for Society,” Pew Research Center, November 15, 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/15/about-six-in-ten-americans-say-legalization-of-same-sex-marriage-is-good-for-society/.

⁵⁶ Kim Parker, Juliana Menasce Horowitz, and Anna Brown, “Americans’ Complex Views on Gender Identity and Transgender Issues,” Pew Research Center, June 28, 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/06/28/americans-complex-views-on-gender-identity-and-transgender-issues/.

⁵⁷ Oriana Gonzalez, “‘No Clear Agreement’ on Americans’ LGBTQ Opinions,” Axios, May 19, 2023, https://www.axios.com/2023/05/19/axios-ipsos-poll-lgbtq-gender-identity.

⁵⁸ Parker, Horowitz, and Brown, “Americans’ Complex Views on Gender Identity and Transgender Issues.”

⁵⁹ Amanda Barroso, “61% of U.S. Women Say ‘Feminist’ Describes Them Well,” Pew Research Center, July 7, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/07/07/61-of-u-s-women-say-feminist-describes-them-well-many-see-feminism-as-empowering-polarizing/.

⁶⁰ Anna Brown, “More Than Twice as Many Americans Support Than Oppose the #MeToo Movement,” Pew Research Center, September 29, 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/09/29/more-than-twice-as-many-americans-support-than-oppose-the-metoo-movement/.

⁶¹ “SPLC Poll Finds Substantial Support for ‘Great Replacement’ Theory and Other Hard-Right Ideas,” Southern Poverty Law Center, June 1, 2022, https://www.splcenter.org/news/2022/06/01/poll-finds-support-great-replacement-hard-right-ideas.

⁶² Alec Tyson, Cary Funk, and Brian Kennedy, “What the Data Says about Americans’ Views of Climate Change,” Pew Research Center, August 9, 2023, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/18/for-earth-day-key-facts-about-americans-views-of-climate-change-and-renewable-energy/.

⁶³ Amanda Holpuch, “Behind the Backlash Against Bud Light,” The New York Times, August 16, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/article/bud-light-boycott.html.

⁶⁴ Rod Dreher, “What’s Happening to America?” The American Conservative, June 1, 2021, https://www.theamericanconservative.com/america-decline-and-fall-hungary/.

⁶⁵ Jesse Washington, “We Finally Have Answers about Michael Jordan and ‘Republicans Buy Sneakers, Too,’” Andscape, May 4, 2020, https://andscape.com/features/we-finally-have-answers-about-michael-jordan-and-republicans-buy-sneakers-too/.

⁶⁶ Paul, “The Puzzle of Woke Capital.”

⁶⁷ Paul, “The Puzzle of Woke Capital.”

⁶⁸ Paul, “The Puzzle of Woke Capital.”

⁶⁹ Brandon Gillespie, “DeSantis Warns ESG Movement,” FOX Business, February 28, 2023, https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/ron-desantis-warns-esg-movement-driven-woke-corporate-ceo-bullies-new-book.

⁷⁰ Fictner, Jan, “Hidden Power of the Big Three?” Business and Politics 19, no. 2 (2017): 313 Google Scholar.

⁷¹ Paul, “The Puzzle of Woke Capital.”

⁷² Salter, Malcolm, “Corporate Purpose in a Post-Covid World,” in A Political Economy of Justice, ed. Allen, Daniel et al. (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2022), 231 Google Scholar.

⁷³ For an illuminating account of the university’s role as incubator of progressive ideology, see Rufo, Christopher, America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything (New York: Broadside Books, 2023)Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ Regarding Yale University, see Conor Friedersdorf, “The New Intolerance of Student Activism,” The Atlantic, November 9, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-new-intolerance-of-student-activism-at-yale/414810/; “Halloween Costume Controversy,” Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/halloween-costume-controversy. Regarding Evergreen State College, see Nico Perrino, “Yale 2.0 at Evergreen State College?” Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, June 1, 2017, https://www.thefire.org/news/yale-20-evergreen-state-college.

⁷⁵ “The Threat from the Illiberal Left,” The Economist, September 4, 2021, https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/09/04/the-threat-from-the-illiberal-left.

⁷⁶ For a clear account of the new ideology’s main tenets, see Richard Hanania, “Woke Institutions Is Just Civil Rights Law,” Substack, June 1, 2021, https://www.richardhanania.com/p/woke-institutions-is-just-civil-rights. Also see Hanania, Richard, The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics (New York: Broadside Books, 2023), 4–7 Google Scholar.

⁷⁷ Sue, Derald W. et al., “Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Implications for Clinical Practice,” American Psychologist 62, no. 4 (2007): 271–86Google ScholarPubMed.

⁷⁸ Haidt, Jonathan and Lukianoff, Greg, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (New York: Penguin Press, 2018)Google Scholar.

⁷⁹ On the threat to free speech and free inquiry on college campuses, see Whittington, Keith, Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018)Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022). Notice that woke employees need not comprise a majority to wield serious influence. Upon hitting a critical mass—something far short of a majority or even, perhaps, a plurality—they are often able to capture their workplaces. How is that? Paul supplies the answer: “For managers in both the for-profit and nonprofit spheres, there are no political or social incentives to resist wokeness. Anti-woke students or employees are few in number and highly marginalized in all professional-class settings; non-woke students or employees are largely passive and unorganized, making them far easier to ignore than activists. So long as woke demands have minimal implications for the core economic interests of the university or corporation, they are simply easier to grant than to refuse.” I would add that the threat of “cancellation”—that is, ostracization from high-skilled employment—surely plays a role in managerial acquiescence.

⁸¹ Paul, “The Puzzle of Woke Capital.”

⁸² As Deneen writes: “Elite universities and their imitators are the training grounds of the new elite… . [This new elite] will go on to occupy critical positions in key institutions, ranging from bureaucracy to business, from entertainment to NGOs, from media to journalism… . Some will remain in academe, a place of remarkable intellectual conformity, where they will assume the role of elite formation. These educational institutions help shape the worldviews and expectations of the managerial ruling class, who then deploy to a variety of settings where those lessons come to shape most of the main organizations that govern daily life: government bureaucracies, law firms, media, journalism … and corporate offices and boards.” Deneen, Regime Change, 44.

⁸³ Andrew Sullivan, “We All Live on Campus Now,” Intelligencer, February 9, 2018, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/02/we-all-live-on-campus-now.html.

⁸⁴ Masconale and Sepe, “Citizen Corp.,” 257.

⁸⁵ Bhagwhat et al., “Corporate Sociopolitical Activism and Firm Value.”

⁸⁶ Saunders-Hastings, “Economic Power and Democratic Forbearance.”

⁸⁷ For a similar analysis, see Lechterman, Jenkins, and Strawser, “#StopHateForProfit.”

⁸⁸ Saunders-Hastings discusses such a case in her “Economic Power and Democratic Forbearance.”

⁸⁹ “Statement by President Biden on the Attack on the Right to Vote in Georgia,” The White House, March 26, 2021, https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/03/26/statement-by-president-biden-on-the-attack-on-the-right-to-vote-in-georgia/.

⁹⁰ James Madison, “Federalist No. 10” (1787), Bill of Rights Institute, https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/federalist-no-10.

⁹¹ Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” Perspectives on Politics 12, no. 3 (2014): 567.

⁹² Talisse, Overdoing Democracy, 92.

⁹³ Talisse, Overdoing Democracy, 90.

⁹⁴ Talisse, Overdoing Democracy, 99.

⁹⁵ Anna Brown, “Most Democrats Who Are Looking for a Relationship Would Not Consider Dating a Trump Voter,” Pew Research Center, April 24, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/04/24/most-democrats-who-are-looking-for-a-relationship-would-not-consider-dating-a-trump-voter/.

⁹⁶ Talisse, Overdoing Democracy, 162.

⁹⁷ But is forbearance even possible? It might be argued that, in our politically fraught world, everything counts as making a move in the culture war. Neutrality is impossible. For example, transgender customers either will be allowed bathroom rights or they will not. Which option represents “forbearance” from political controversy? Either your company does celebrate Black History month or it does not. Both options come fully loaded with political meaning. Companies, in short, simply cannot avoid picking a side in the American culture war. In response, I would distinguish between optional activism and unavoidable activism. Setting a transgender bathroom policy (or not) represents unavoidable activism. Forming a social media partnership with a prominent transgender influencer represents avoidable activism. So does, say, threatening to cancel a planned corporate expansion unless the local government passes trans-friendly laws. The logic of my argument suggests that companies forbear where they can, while maintaining that the set of opportunities for forbearance is not empty. For an insightful analysis of related issues concerning political correctness, see Eidelson, Benjamin, “The Etiquette of Equality,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 51, no. 2 (2023): 97–139 Google Scholar, esp. sec. 4.