TABLE 3
CORPORATE LEADERSHIP
“How much do you admire those who run [your country’s] largest companies?”
Base: All EU adults in five countries and US adults
Source: Harris Interactive - Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding - Italy is really the only country surveyed where there is still some admiration for corporate executives. With the exception of Italy, majorities have very little or no admiration for these executives.
An FT/Harris poll published today shows that popular backlash against globalisation and the leaders of the world's largest companies is sweeping all rich countries.
The Financial Times has reported that the British have the least admiration of any national group for the leaders of their country's largest companies, and a large majority believes the government should impose a pay cap on the heads of companies to limit their rewards.
Large majorities of people in the US and across Europe want higher taxation for the rich to counter a widespread belief that rewards are unjustified.
Supporting the view that globalisation is an overwhelmingly negative force, citizens of rich countries are looking to government to cushion the blows they perceive have come from the liberalisation of their economies to trade with emerging countries.
The FT says that those polled in the UK, France, the US and Spain were about three times more likely to say globalisation was having a negative rather than a positive effect on their countries. The majority against globalisation was smaller in Germany, with its large export base.
Corporate leaders fared little better with only 5 per cent or fewer people in the US and all large European economies, except Italy, saying they had a great deal of admiration for those who run large companies.
In the UK, nearly 80 per cent of those polled thought corporate executives earned too much,60 per cent said they should be taxed more and the same proportion thought the government should limit their pay directly.
