With proxy advisor recommendations followed 80% of the time, how fair is the process?

Institutional shareholders, who now own 76% of corporate shares, up from 47% in 1987, are determining the path corporate boards take on a wide variety of issues that impact society at large. But who is influencing those institutional shareholders? Increasingly it is proxy advisors and this role, itself, is becoming “conflicted,” according to the American Council for Capital Formation’s Timothy M. Doyle.

In the aftermath of the Parkland, FL school shootings, something never before witnessed occurred in America: Corporations in noticeable numbers took an activist stance on a political issue. Retailers such as Wal-Mart and Dicks Sporting goods stopped selling guns while others cut their discounts to NRA members. Corporations...