{"id":1544,"date":"2025-12-11T12:49:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T17:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/denny-center\/?page_id=1544"},"modified":"2026-04-01T15:19:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:19:56","slug":"examining-the-role-of-corporate-boards","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/denny-center\/research\/examining-the-role-of-corporate-boards\/","title":{"rendered":"Examining the Role of Corporate Boards"},"content":{"rendered":"

In its newly released signature report<\/a>, the Denny Center for Democratic Capitalism at Georgetown Law finds that the private sector, specifically the corporate sector, has a vested interest in supporting the long-term health of society more broadly. Because the largest 500 U.S. companies make up about two-thirds of GDP, the report focuses primarily on public company boards of directors, the challenges they face, and the rationale for prioritizing non-shareholder stakeholder interests. According to research highlighted in the report, boards that (1) give explicit consideration of all stakeholder interests and (2) assess shareholder value over longer time horizons are able to better address the needs of employees, customers, vendors, and communities without sacrificing long-term value creation for shareholders.<\/p>\n

In his 2005 Economist<\/em> essay, “The Biggest Contract\u201d, McKinsey\u2019s Ian Davis argues that large corporations should adapt Rousseau\u2019s idea of a social contract: \u201cMore than two centuries ago, Rousseau\u2019s social contract helped to seed the idea among political leaders that they must serve the public good, lest their own legitimacy be threatened. The CEOs of today\u2019s big corporations should take the opportunity to restate and reinforce their own social contracts in order to help secure, for the long term, the invested billions of their shareholders.\u201d In other words, if they haven\u2019t already, those who steward our largest companies should broaden the scope of their responsibilities to include the health of society more broadly, recognizing this broadening is in their business\u2019s self-interest.<\/p>\n

Within this context, the Denny Center\u2019s 2025 Report on the Health of Democratic Capitalism<\/em><\/a> revisits key datasets from its 2024 Report<\/a> and, in addition, examines the role of corporate boards in supporting democratic capitalism. This year\u2019s report addresses important questions including:<\/p>\n