Leadership Now CEO Daniella Ballou-Aares joined a panel at the 2024 Milken Global Conference to discuss capitalism's role in safeguarding democracy. The panelists concluded that democracy and capitalism, at their best, make each other stronger. However, our failure to fully optimize these systems has resulted in harm rather than mutual reinforcement. They also highlighted significant risks to democracy from the upcoming U.S. election, which could potentially impact the economy and more.
The panel outlined several strategies for business leaders to bolster U.S. democracy in November:
Granting employees time off to vote
Encouraging volunteerism at polling stations
Urging candidates to respect election results
Calling on business leaders to publicly challenge non-compliant candidates
““The risks of democracy erosion are significant… This is a time for business in America to come off the fence and actually talk about the threats to democracy. Differentiate between the candidates, and support trust in elections.””
Daniella was joined by former president of Armenia, Armen Sarkissian; Lucan Way from the University of Toronto; Maria Teresa Kumar of Voto Latino; Hein de Haas from the International Migration Institute; and Matthew Bishop, Chairman of Global Impact Leaders at the Sorenson Institute, who served as moderator.
View the recording of the panel “ Can Capitalism Safeguard Democracy?”. Daniella’s commentary starts at the 22:30 mark.