We partnered with Emerson College Polling to gain greater insight into the viewpoints of registered Independent women in key swing states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
View the results:
We partnered with Emerson College Polling to gain greater insight into the viewpoints of registered Independent women in key swing states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
View the results:
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) topics continue to drive discussion across corporate and investor communities, but often overlook one of the most critical drivers of impact: corporate political influence. Our research explores the impact of corporate political spending across ESG dimensions, current tools and data sources that support greater visibility into this spending, and leading practices for transparency and disclosure and recommends actions for business leaders, including:
Provide transparency through direct contributions and public disclosures
Align political contributions with corporate values
Support a stable & healthy U.S. democracy
Five months after the January 6th insurrection — which prompted companies to make bold commitments to stop funding lawmakers who voted against certifying the 2020 election — the question remains: does it make a significant difference if business PACs continue to refrain from funding those who denied the election results?
The Leadership Now Project analyzed the data to answer this critical question. The analysis demonstrates that business PAC funding matters significantly. Many believe that business PACs are relatively inconsequential — since on a whole they amount to only about 15% of total funding for members of Congress — but the numbers suggest otherwise.
Using public data and a machine-learning approach, the Leadership Now Project mapped the “democracy market” to identify the scale and role of political actors — public charities, private foundations, political committees, and candidates — and the flow of funds among them. This effort sheds light on threats to democratic function and viable solutions for reform. Click below to review our initial findings.
The fight for democracy and the fight for equality have long been intertwined in the United States. In the wake of George Floyd's murder and the ongoing racial injustices impacting communities of color, Leadership Now put together an analysis that lays out the critical linkages between systemic racism and the flaws in our democratic system. The analysis demonstrates the ways in which voter participation, electoral systems, campaign finance, and representation in politics are both products of, and contributors to, structural racism.
Leadership Now collaborated with Citizen Data to survey over a thousand MBAs and business executives in the US on the need for reforming our democracy.
More than two-thirds of MBAs and executives are "very concerned" about the state of our democracy, and more than half believe that business leaders have a responsibility to take action to fix the issues in our democracy.
View the survey to see where business leaders land on specific reforms like public financing and term limits.
MBAs and executives are skewed male and Caucasian.
They are slightly more Republican than the general electorate, though are still a balanced group politically.
They tend to vote at high rates in general elections.
MBAs and Executives are more concerned about our nation and more pro-democracy reform than the general population.
Over half of those surveyed believe business leaders have a responsibility to help fix issues in our democracy.
Most say these issues are at least as important as traditional policy issues like immigration and abortion
There aren’t significant differences between the two groups, but women with MBAs tend to be more Republican and slightly less pro-democracy reform than males.
Though, women in both groups are more supportive of democracy reform than men.
Most MBAs and Executives that are Democrats say the United States does not have fair elections and that it is at least somewhat difficult to vote, echoing national trends. Republicans overwhelmingly disagree.
Democrats in business also are more likely to say that business leaders have a responsibility to act in democracy, with 63% of MBAs and 64% of Executives saying so, compared to 48% and 49% of Republicans, respectively.
Republicans, Democrats, and independents in business all strongly support independent commissions for redistricting, but there is a gap for all other democracy reform measures asked.