Political ideology is now a significant risk factor in corporate governance. This is no more apparent than when the term “woke capitalism” is invoked. The term is used by the political right as a rallying cry to make the public aware that a leftist political ideology has come to taint a business decision of a prominent company and is therefore to be condemned and the company punished. For example, in April of this year, the Georgia legislature passed a new voting law, the Election Integrity Act of 2021, that arguably restricts the voting rights of its citizens. In response, Coca Cola and other well-known companies, in a show of support for our political democracy, publicly condemned the new law and Major League Baseball even went so far as to relocate this year’s All-Star game from Atlanta to Denver. These actions were roundly criticized by the political right as being examples of “woke capitalism.”
