Corporate versus Democratic Virtues

Over at A Collection of Selves we find the inspiration for a discussion of what kind of a nation corporations would be if they were thought about in terms of state politics. As noted there, some corporations exceed nations in GDP as well as in population if we take employees for citizens. So, what kind of nations are corporations?

The answer is obvious to anyone with any familiarity with the corporate business world. Most corporations limit voting rights to the landed class, i.e. the owners, as perhaps unsurprisingly Tea Party members have recently been proposing America should do. Corporations are also highly authoritarian, with centralized top down power structures. There is no division of powers, no courts, no assumption of innocence and so on. The original post lists more, fairly predictable, observations. Well, anyone who has worked for a large business or corporation is not surprised by the claim that it would be a terrible state in which to live permanently.

Yet, and this is where I depart from the original discussion in order to make what I find to be an interesting observation, we often take success in the corporate world to qualify one for public office in America. Why, one might ask, should success in an authoritarian radically anti-democratic environment suit one for public service in a representative democracy? Indeed, the tendency to translate business credentials into political ones seems, from this perspective, somewhat perverse. (Of course a similar point can be made about the penchant for wanting to turn military leaders into political leaders. Again you have success in a radically anti-democratic environment being mistaken for the demonstration of democratic virtues. Now, there is certainly something to be said for military service potentially providing a testament to one's office-worthy character. But there is a world of difference between military service and military leadership.)

It seems worth asking, what are the virtues necessary to be a good servant of the people in a representative democracy? At the risk of naivete I would suggest these are decidedly not ruthlessness, charisma, a willingness to be obeyed and to give orders, a competitive spirit and an ability to excel in highly hierarchical centralized authoritarian regimes.

So what would democratic virtues be? Perhaps a desire, more than even a willingness, to work with others. A valuing of agreement and harmony over victory. A loathing for obedience and command. A greater interest in collective goods rather than individual gain. A stubborn inability to respect or recognize traditional authorities such as wealth or station.

These might be right, they may barely scratch the surface or may miss the mark, but if they are at all accurate one notes that they are characteristics that would make one distinctly ill-equipped to excel within a corporate (or perhaps military) setting. I do not take this to be accidental.