Corporate Guide to Navigating U.S. Political Risk

Building on the insights from our 2024 U.S. Political Risk Analysis, this comprehensive guide serves as a crucial follow-up tailored specifically for corporate decision-makers. Designed for corporate boards, management teams, and institutional investors, this guide acts as a dynamic roadmap for effectively managing political uncertainties that may impact your business as we approach the 2024 election.

Understanding U.S. Political Risk: Implications for Business in 2024

This executive presentation, drawing on objective academic and business sources, details the critical threats facing U.S. democratic institutions. Understand how the weakening of political structures and erosion of democratic principles can impact your business environment. More importantly, discover actionable strategies for business leaders to mitigate these risks and contribute to the stabilization of U.S. democracy.

Democracy Report Card

To help business leaders make informed decisions about engaging in state-level politics and democracy reform, we have launched the Leadership Now Project Democracy Report Card, a highly digestible, high-level view of state-level democracy.

Each state is assigned a letter grade based on their democratic performance across three critical categories:

  • Voting

  • Electoral systems

  • Campaign finance

ESG & Corporate Political Spending

ESG & Corporate Political Spending: Practical Actions For Business Leaders To Reduce Risk, Ensure Alignment & Support A Stable Economic Environment

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) topics continue to drive discussion across corporate and investor communities, but often overlook one of the most critical drivers of impact: corporate political influence. Our research explores the impact of corporate political spending across ESG dimensions, current tools and data sources that support greater visibility into this spending, and leading practices for transparency and disclosure and recommends actions for business leaders, including:

  • Provide transparency through direct contributions and public disclosures

  • Align political contributions with corporate values

  • Support a stable & healthy U.S. democracy

2020 Democracy Market Map

Using public data and a machine-learning approach, the Leadership Now Project mapped the “democracy market” to identify the scale and role of political actors — public charities, private foundations, political committees, and candidates — and the flow of funds among them. This effort sheds light on threats to democratic function and viable solutions for reform. Click below to review our initial findings.