CHATTERJI AND TOFFEL
How to weigh in
CEO activism diff ers from traditional corporate engagement in pol-
itics precisely because it is visible and high profi le. The CEO needs
to decide whether he or she wants all that attention or if the cause
would be better advanced by a coalition of CEOs. More than 160
CEOs and business leaders chose to sign a letter by the Human
Rights Campaign opposing the North Carolina bathroom law. In tak-
ing this approach, they mitigated the risk of consumer backlash and
amplifi ed the newsworthiness and thus the impact of their activism.
Collective action can also make it more diffi cult for critics to target
individual corporate leaders and thus can be perceived as less risky.
But it is slower by design and is likely to be less eff ective in associat-
ing a particular leader and corporate brand with a particular cause.
Implications for Democracy
CEO activism may be giving businesses and their leaders even more infl uence
in a political system in which their money can already buy access to power.
Some people, including North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, who supported
the bathroom bill while facing an onslaught of CEO activism, have gone fur-
ther, characterizing it as corporate bullying. One Georgia state senator, who
sponsored that state’s religious freedom bill, lamented, “Marc Benioff is the
ringleader for big- business CEOs who use economic threats to exercise more
power over public policy than the voters who use the democratic process.”
From this perspective, CEO activism can be viewed as endangering democ-
racy’s ideal that each citizen should have an equal say in infl uencing policy
outcomes.
There is of course another angle on this that considers CEO activism within
the current environment of political infl uence. As we’ve noted, CEO activism
is an unusually transparent way for corporate leaders to try to aff ect policy—
in contrast to behind- the- scenes eff orts to work with legislators, trade asso-
ciations, and think tanks. Because CEO activism is highly visible, employees,
customers, and the media can decide how to respond to it. There is also a
political divide here. (To be sure, certain controversies transcend politics.)
Some progressives have been appreciative of recent CEO activism while de-
crying the activities of business leaders like the Koch brothers. As a result,
many conservatives see a double standard at play. Most of the CEO activists
have been espousing liberal views, but it remains to be seen how widespread
activism from conservative business leaders would be received.