ReportGovernance Studies at Brookings

Democracy Playbook 2025: Seven Pillars to Defend Democracy in 2025 and Beyond

Edited by Norman Eisen & Jonathan Katz, 2025
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/v4_democracy-playbook-2025.pdf

This third edition of the Democracy Playbook offers evidence-based best practices for reversing democratic backsliding, to help citizens and stakeholders reclaim good governance, transparency, and the rule of law, and strengthen democratic resilience.  It outlines how the business sector has historically supported these efforts by fighting corruption (Pillar 3) through actions like opposing state capture, supporting anti-corruption laws, and protecting whistleblowers, in addition to making democracy deliver (Pillar 7) through fair wages, labor rights, and investment in underserved communities. It calls on companies to continue this role, emphasizing that democratic stability is essential for reducing risk and sustaining long-term economic opportunity.

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ReportBusiness for America
Business Perspectives on Political Backlash
2023

To better understand how businesses are navigating this toxic political environment, Business for America (BFA) surveyed more than 50 business leaders across the country and sectors, from Fortune 500 executives to small business owners. The report reveals widespread concern about escalating political backlash, highlighting the difficult balance companies face between stakeholder demands and risks like boycotts, speech restrictions, and regulatory threats.

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VideoCorporate Political Responsibility Taskforce
Common Areas of Misalignment
Yamika Ketu of the Ceres’ Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, 2023
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VideoCorporate Political Responsibility Taskforce
Common Areas of Misalignment
Yamika Ketu of the Ceres’ Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, 2023
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ToolSNG Agora Institute
Conservative Principles for Building Trust in Elections
2023

To rebuild election trust among conservative voters, this Johns Hopkins–R Street tool outlines three actionable principles: affirm past election integrity, increase process transparency, and improve election operations. It pairs these with Gallup-backed data to guide civic leaders—including business—on addressing doubts without heightening polarization.

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ReportClimate Governance Initiative
Corporate climate policy engagement: A briefing for board directors
2023

Conducting corporate climate policy engagement positively and appropriately is critical to creating the conditions that will enable a company to achieve its net zero transition.  This briefing, produced by the Climate Governance Initiative in collaboration with the global think tank InfluenceMap, highlights the key issues that board directors should be aware of.  

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BookErb Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce
Corporate Political Responsibility
Tom P. Lyon, 2023

An overview of the need for CPR and how the Erb Institute’s Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce supports companies in aligning their approaches to political influence with their commitments to purpose, values, sustainability and stakeholders, while contributing to rebuilding trust in US civic institutions. 

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ArticleProMarket
Corporate Political Responsibility in a Captured Economy
Claudine Schneider and Ed Dolan, 2023

This article argues that corporate governance need to take account of a company's political responsibility and that the Erb Principles provide a helpful framework for doing so. 

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VideoCorporate Political Responsibility Taskforce
Corporate Political Responsibility: From Theory to Action
2023
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ArticleFortune
Corporations were never supposed to write the rules
Maureen Kline, 2023

This article argues that "corporations were never supposed to write the rules of the game. Now they need to help make them better for capitalism to survive."

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VideoCorporate Political Responsibility Taskforce
Could a Voluntary System Really Make a Difference?
Christine Mahoney of the University of Virginia, 2023
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WebsiteHarvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance
CPA’s Guide to Corporate Political Spending: A Practical Guide for Management
Bruce F. Freed, Jeanne Hanna, Karl J. Sandstrom, Center for Political Accountability, 2023

This post summarizes the Center for Political Accountability’s Guide to Corporate Political Spending, which provides best practices for implementing the CPA-Zicklin Model Code. The Model Code identifies a company’s broader societal and democracy obligations and responsibilities that should govern its political spending decisions. This new Guide spells out what concrete steps and actions management should follow as it makes spending decisions and evaluates the accompanying risks. 

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VideoCorporate Political Responsibility Taskforce
Culture Wars, Backlash and the Current Political Climate
Sarah Bonk and Richard Eidlin of Business for America, 2023
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VideoCorporate Political Responsibility Taskforce
Determining When it is Legitimate to Engage
Martin Reeves of BCG Henderson Institute, 2023
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ToolDebevoise & Plimpton
ESG Investigations Tracker
2023

This tracker provides an overview of federal and state investigations into corporate ESG practices, highlighting lawsuits over misleading ESG claims by firms like BlackRock, government probes requesting information from asset managers and climate organizations, and legislative efforts aimed at limiting ESG considerations in investing. It offers essential insight into the shifting legal and reputational risks companies face in ESG governance.

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WebsiteIGC Institute
Executive Guide to Navigating Our Complex Political, Social and Economic Environment
2023

This guide provides a good overview of how the current environment developed for companies and some tips that business leaders can use to navigate through the conflicting pressures.

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ReportHarvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance
Financial Implications of Rising Political Risk in the US
Stephen Davis, 2023

This report explores the financial impacts of growing political instability in the U.S., emphasizing how shifts in policy and governance affect corporate decision-making, risk assessment, and long-term value. It outlines the importance of aligning business strategies with evolving political landscapes to protect financial interests. 

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ReportThe Heritage Foundation
Free Enterprise and the Common Good: Economic Science and Political Economy
Richard Reinsch, 2023

This report argues free enterprise supports both individual prosperity and societal well-being, advocating for competitive markets over government intervention to ensure long-term economic growth.

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ArticleThe Heritage Foundation – Conservative Perspectives Series
Free Enterprise and the Common Good: Economic Science and Political–Economic Art as Complements
Alexander William Salter, 2023

This essay explores tensions between classical-liberal and national-conservative visions of markets and the common good. Drawing on Catholic social teaching and Wilhelm Röpke’s political economy, Salter argues that free enterprise and moral order must be treated as complements, not substitutes. He calls for dispersed property, subsidiarity, and policies that support economic independence, civic virtue, and human flourishing. 

 

 

Guidance Notes 

Free Enterprise Competitive Markets (A) – Central theme: explores how markets serve the common good when balanced by moral and civic considerations rather than pure efficiency. 

Healthy, Stable Systems (A) – Advocates dispersed property and subsidiarity to sustain freedom and prevent concentration of power—key CPR system-stability goals. 

Corporate Citizenship (B) – Frames enterprise as a moral actor embedded in community life, with duties to uphold shared well-being beyond profit. 

Responsibility (B) – Highlights the moral obligations of firms and policymakers to design markets that sustain families, workers, and civic order. 

Civic Institutions Governing (C) – Links property ownership and civic engagement, arguing that healthy markets depend on participatory institutions. 

Democracy Constitutional Republic (C) – Warns that economic dependence erodes democratic independence; connects market design to constitutional self-governance. 

Legitimacy (D) – Reflects CPR’s principle that economic authority must rest on moral legitimacy and broad-based benefit, not technocratic or partisan power. 

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ToolClimate-lobbying.com
Global Standards on Responsible Climate Lobbying
2023

This framework guides companies to align lobbying with climate goals, focusing on transparent reporting, board oversight, and annual reviews to support efforts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

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ReportGreenwash Action Lab
Greenwashing 3.0: Why addressing greenwashing remains as important as ever
2023

This report outlines how corporate greenwashing tactics have become more sophisticated, shifting from exaggerated claims to subtler misrepresentations and legal obfuscation. It highlights emerging regulatory gaps, critiques industry self-regulation, and calls for more robust public accountability frameworks to ensure environmental claims align with actual business practices. 
 

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