K354, CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02138
Public and Elite Perceptions of the Role of Business Leaders in Politics
You’re invited to join us for the CAPS Seminar with Eitan Hersh for a discussion on “Public and Elite Perceptions of the Role of Business Leaders in Politics.” The talk will be followed by light refreshments.
Abstract
This talk will draw on two forthcoming articles co-authored with Sarang Shah (PhD student, UC Berkeley). On what policy areas and with what strategies should businesses and their leaders be involved in political activity? Advocates of “stakeholder capitalism”endorse companies and their leaders taking stances on social, environmental, and economic issues that advance the interests of their communities, not just of their shareholders. We juxtapose this view with two alternatives: companies and their leaders should a.) stay out of politics or b.) advocate only for their narrow business interests. We survey the mass public and business leaders. The public has little appetite for corporate leader engagement. However, business leaders, especially Democratic ones, endorse more active engagement from their firms on most issues, though they favor their firm leaders engaging in behind-the-scenes strategies rather than those that mobilize employees or customers. We find there is an elite appetite for business leaders to move beyond particularistic lobbying and influence broader economic and social policy.
About the Speaker
Eitan Hersh is a professor of political science at Tufts University. His research focuses on US elections and civic participation. Hersh is the author of Politics is for Power (Scribner, 2020), Hacking the Electorate (Cambridge UP 2015), as well as scholarly articles. Hersh earned his PhD from Harvard in 2011 and served as assistant professor of political science at Yale University from 2011-2017. His public writings have appeared in venues such as the New York Times, USA Today, The Atlantic, POLITICO, and the Boston Globe. Hersh regularly testifies in voting rights court cases and has testified to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary about the role of data analytics in political campaigns. He teaches courses on elections, technology and politics, and American conservatism.
In addition to work on elections and civic engagement, Hersh has written on topics ranging from antisemitism and the political consequences of terrorist attacks to politicization in health care delivery and the opioid crisis. His next book is about the civic role of business leaders. For his teaching, research, and campus leadership, Hersh has received national recognition for prioritizing viewpoint diversity in higher education.
About the Seminar
The CAPS Seminar is an occasional series of talks throughout the academic year highlighting research by CAPS affiliates and fostering discussion among members of our community.