I usually say to my students that accuse academia of having a liberal bias, “ok, I’ll give you that one, but the military, religious institutions, talk radio and corporate America have a conservative bias.” I might have to rethink the last one after this graph from Adam Bonica.
It shows a wide spread of ideology by members of corporate boards based on their giving patterns. While this doesn’t necessarily prove that corporate America is ideologically neutral, it does suggest that members of corporate boards aren’t agents of the right. This might say something about the lack of serious distinction between our two political parties when it comes to issues of corprorate governance — but that for another blog post.
What do you think this says about corporate America’s ideological views?
HT: The Monkey Cage
Comments 6
Linsey — August 23, 2010
Capitalism is essentially a right wing ideology. Contributions to a democratic candidate or the democratic party do not give corporations a liberal bias. Our political scale in this country has moved farther and farther to the right - illustrated nicely by this crazy graph (I guess there is nothing left of a democrat?).
While not perfect the quadrant system of plotting politics is more useful than a left-right scale.
jose — August 23, 2010
Point noted Linsey. I think you're right that, at least on issues of corporate governance, Democrats don't seem to be able to must too much in the way of opposition to neo-liberal capitalism. Although having a consumer protection agency could be promising.
Jason — August 23, 2010
Campaign contributions are bribes, which is why both sides get them (and especially the side in power).
Didn't Hillary Clinton receive the largest contributions from pharmecudical corporations?
jose — August 24, 2010
jason....."bribe" is a bit strong. I'd probably put it somewhere between "speech" and a bribe :-)
Kenneth M. Kambara — August 28, 2010
This is an interesting graphic & I'm reminded of corporate board composition studies about 10 years ago in AJS & ASQ. It would be interesting to see how ideology affects decision-making. I have found that managers' and administrators' personal politics often don't correspond to their decisions in their organizational roles.
jose — September 2, 2010
Good point Ken! I do think it simply means that Democrats don't provide a serious challenge to corporate hegemony.