Corporate Political Responsibility

What It Is: A 2026 book by retail futurist Doug Stephens (founder of Retail Prophet) arguing that declining institutional trust, eroding economic fairness, and a weakening education system aren't just societal problems but an untapped source of competitive advantage, laying out a step-by-step business plan for companies to invest in strengthening democracy, fair capitalism, and public education in order to set strategy for the next era of business. 

Why It Matters: Stephens frames the stakes directly: "no company can thrive in a society that is failing." He argues that the postwar engines of trust, fair capitalism, and education that powered prosperity are now seizing up, and that companies which help restart them can build investor confidence, employee commitment, and customer loyalty in the process. In Chapter 30, he makes the business case for reinforcing democracy and the need for corporate political responsibility, where companies conduct themselves "in a manner that supports and reinforces the rules of play necessary for a free market.” 

How to Use It: Use the book's step-by-step business plan as a starting framework for connecting your company's civic and democracy-related investments directly to competitive strategy. Refer to Chapter 30 as you craft and apply a reasonable set of rules to guide political advocacy, donations, and lobbying, to ensure you are reinforcing and strengthening the foundational systems that contribute to a healthy free-market and well-functioning democracy. 

What It Is: A nonpartisan hub providing trusted election security resources, training, and timely updates for election officials, organized into Physical Security, Cybersecurity, and Operations resource libraries, plus services including trainings and an Insights & Events series. 

Why It Matters: Election offices face novel risks this cycle — from targeted cyberattacks to physical threats against officials — and companies increasingly need both practical actions and a defensible rationale for supporting election security. This directly reflects Responsibility b) — Strong representative democracy, which calls on business to help protect "effective, transparent and accountable civic institutions" — making the Exchange's concrete, operational guidance (e.g. its recent website-security "fast wins") a template for what that support looks like in practice. 

How to Use It: Companies with cybersecurity, physical-security, or crisis-communications expertise can use the Resource Library to understand what local election offices actually need and consider offering pro bono expertise or in-kind support through the Exchange's Services page. 

What It Is: The Atlantic Council's annual index ranking 171 countries on political freedom, economic freedom, and rule of law (the Freedom Index) alongside income, health, education, environment, and inclusion (the Prosperity Index), using thirty years of data from 1995 to 2025. 

Why It Matters: This year's headline finding is that the rule of law itself is now eroding, not just political freedom — the global Legal Subindex has declined by over a point since 2020, with the US declining from 81.2 to 69.8 since 2014. . Notably, the data shows that rule of law correlates most sharply with prosperity. Having this concrete data can help companies weigh systemic interests more accurately in their public affairs priorities. 

How to Use It: Use the interactive country-profiles rankings to view the US-specific trend line alongside markets where your company operates. against thirty years of rule-of-law, political freedom, and economic freedom data — useful for enterprise risk assessments, issue prioritization, board-level briefings on geopolitical exposure, and crisis readiness. 

What It Is: An HBS Institute for Business in Global Society article profiling how companies like Levi Strauss, Salesforce, and Patagonia are supporting non-partisan voter participation while managing the risks of political backlash. 

Why It Matters: The perceived legitimacy of these programs is broad: 82% of U.S. adults say companies should give employees time off to vote, and 69% say firms should actively encourage voting. That external legitimacy translates to measurable company-level impact — working at a Time to Vote member company increases an employee's likelihood of voting by 2.1 percentage points, based on a study of 30 million workers at 377,000 companies. 

How to Use It: Consider your company's existing commitments to civic participation and which level of engagement fits — paid time off to vote, poll-worker support, or voter registration partnerships. Then consider how to articulate your rationale in a way that respects broad public opinion on the issue. Use the Levi Strauss, Salesforce, and Patagonia examples as models. 

What It Is: This resource comes from the Leadership Now Project, which describes itself as a nonpartisan coalition of business leaders and outlines principles that guide its positions. This particular resource is explicitly framed around how the risk environment for the 2026 midterms has shifted before, during, and after Election Day, paired with an explainer on U.S. election safeguards and a five-point action plan for business leaders. 

Why It Matters: The memo grounds its case in the safeguards already in place — 96% of voters use a paper-verified ballot, 49 states conduct post-election audits, and 44 states verify mail-in ballot identity — while flagging specific new risks that could affect voter confidence and election administration this cycle. 

How to Use It: The memo's five actions distill to three for most companies: engage early and directly with your state and local election officials to ask how you can help; support employee civic participation through paid time off, poll-worker programs, and internal voter education; and prepare in advance — with other business leaders — for how you'd respond if post-election disputes arise. 

What It Is: A 2026 BCG article, based on interviews with over 35 CEOs, senior executives, and community leaders, mapping a five-level spectrum of local civic engagement — from initial policies like volunteer time off to full civic leadership — and outlining five steps for CEOs to structure it as a source of competitive advantage rather than discretionary giving. 

Why It Matters: BCG's Trust Index research shows the most trusted companies generate roughly 2.5 times more value creation than market-average firms — and in the current environment of distrust, companies that show up for their local communities build exactly that kind of credibility. The case is concrete: Michelin's partnership with 50+ organizations transformed a shuttered factory site in Clermont-Ferrand into a €300 million innovation district, while Shipt's LadderUp Accelerator has awarded $1.3 million in grants enabling 2.3 million meals for food-insecure families. 

How to Use It: BCG's five steps for effective civic engagement distill to three: pick a specific, sustained focus area rather than spreading effort thin; contribute expertise and ecosystem relationships, not just funding; and build governance and measurement into the effort from the start so it survives leadership changes and budget cycles. Use our Principled Influence Guide when formalizing civic engagement to ensure it is consistent with your Public Affairs Purposes and Priorities.