Is Democratic Capitalism in Crisis?
Many developed democracies have been swept by waves of popular anger at aspects of capitalism. Informing this anger is the perception that private-sector markets and institutions do not properly reward innovation and hard work and instead undermine democratic institutions. Democracy, in this view, is failing to create rules and policies capable of generating fair markets and delivering basic human rights and social justice.
Do capitalists and their enablers undermine the principles of democracy by exacerbating inequalities and interfering with the justice system? How can we restore fairness and trust, increase transparency, and empower truth?
Join us to discuss these critical questions in this panel discussion celebrating the launch the new Program on Capitalism and Democracy (CAD) at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Hoover Institution will engage with CAD faculty director Anat Admati, Professor of Finance and Faculty at the Graduate School of Business, and Patrick Alley, co-founder of the anti-corruption organization Global Witness. CDDRL Mosbacher Director Kathryn Stoner and GSB Dean Jon Levin will deliver introductory remarks.
This event is co-sponsored by the Corporations and Society Initiative (CASI) at the Graduate School of Business and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL).
Speakers
Anat R. Admati
Anat Admati is the George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and faculty director of the Corporations and Society Initiative. Her interests lie in the interaction of business, law, and policy, with a focus on governance and accountability issues. Since 2010, Admati has been engaged in policy discussions related to financial regulations. 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 has written on information dissemination in financial markets, financial contracting, corporate governance, and banking. She is the co-author, with Martin Hellwig, of The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It (Princeton University Press 2013, expanded edition 2024).
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
Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He is also professor by courtesy of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford. He leads the Hoover Institution’s programs on China’s Global Sharp Power and on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region. At FSI, he leads the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy, based at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, which he directed for more than six years. He also co-leads with (Eileen Donahoe) the Global Digital Policy Incubator based at FSI’s Cyber Policy Center. He is the founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy and also serves as senior consultant at the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. His research focuses on democratic trends and conditions around the world and on policies and reforms to defend and advance democracy. His latest edited book (with Orville Schell), China's Influence and American Interests (Hoover Press, 2019), urges a posture of constructive vigilance toward China’s global projection of “sharp power,” which it sees as a rising threat to democratic norms and institutions. He offers a massive open online course (MOOC) on Comparative Democratic Development through the edX platform and is now writing a textbook to accompany it.
Virtual: Open to the public.
Anat R. Admati
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.
