Is Democratic Capitalism in Crisis?

We celebrated the launch of the Program on Capitalism and Democracy (CAD), a collaboration between GSB’s Corporations and Society Initiative (CASI) and Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). 

Led by Professor Anat Admati, affiliated faculty at CDDRL, and the George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), and undertaken in collaboration with the Corporations and Society Initiative at the GSB, CAD will explore the potential opportunities, tensions, and challenges to democratic governance that capitalism presents. Whereas markets and private-sector institutions need effective governments and laws to enable their success at scale, the forces of capitalism can undermine democratic institutions, distort rules and enforcement, and exacerbate injustice. 

Professor Admati was joined by Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Hoover Institution, and Patrick Alley, co-founder of the anti-corruption organization Global Witness. 

CDDRL Mosbacher Director Kathryn Stoner and GSB Dean Jon Levin delivered introductory remarks.

Speakers

Patrick Alley is the co-founder Global Witness, an organization that identifies key links between environmental and human rights abuses, and is one of the pioneers of the global anti-corruption movement. Since 1995, Global Witness has garnered significant accolades and global recognition, including a nomination for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and several prestigious awards.

Patrick’s commitment extends beyond advocacy, having conducted over fifty field investigations globally, ranging from the destruction of rainforests in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and contributing substantially to international efforts for greater transparency and accountability in the extractive industries. His dedication reflects a core belief in the transformative power of data and transparency to address critical global challenges, leading to substantive reforms in environmental protection and governance.

Patrick Alley is the author of Very Bad People, the story of how Global Witness uncovered a worldwide network of organized criminality, kleptocracy, and corruption and exposed the people behind it. His second book, Terrible Humans, will be published in May 2024 and gives the reader a fly-on-the-wall view of the work of activists and journalists exposing a pantheon of crimes, including the operations of the Wagner Group, sanctions busting, wildlife trafficking, and top-level political corruption in the EU.

Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), Stanford University. He served for 32 years as founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and continues as a consultant to the National Endowment for Democracy.

At Stanford, he is professor by courtesy of political science and sociology, and he directs the Arab Reform and Democracy Program at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). He also co-leads the Hoover programs on China's Global Sharp Power and on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region, and the FSI program, the Global Digital Policy Incubator, which is part of the Cyber Policy Center.

He received all of his degrees from Stanford University, including a B.A. in 1974, an M.A. in 1978, and a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1980. He taught Sociology at Vanderbilt University from 1980-85.

Anat R. Admati is the George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics at Stanford University Graduate School of Business (GSB), a Faculty Director of the GSB Corporations and Society Initiative, and a senior fellow at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. She has written extensively on information dissemination in financial markets, portfolio management, financial contracting, corporate governance and banking. Admati’s current research, teaching and advocacy focus on the complex interactions between business, law, and policy with focus on governance and accountability.

Since 2010, Admati has been active in the policy debate on financial regulations. She is the co-author, with Martin Hellwig, of the award-winning and highly acclaimed book, The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It (Princeton University Press, 2013; bankersnewclothes.com). In 2014, she was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and by Foreign Policy Magazine as among 100 global thinkers.

Admati holds BSc from the Hebrew University, MA, MPhil and PhD from Yale University, and an honorary doctorate from University of Zurich. She is a fellow of the Econometric Society, the recipient of multiple fellowships, research grants, and paper recognition, and is a past board member of the American Finance Association. She has served on a number of editorial boards and is a member of the FDIC’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee, a former member of the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee, and a former visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund.