A Modest Proposal on Shareholder Democracy

One Difficulty for Shareholders who wish to effect a Change in the Policies of a Corporation (especially in restraining the Excesses of the Leadership) is that so many Shares are controlled by Investment and Pension Funds, which are in their Turn controlled by Fund Managers whose Interests are not always those of the Investors.

I have a Modest Proposal. Give the Members of a Pension Fund or even the Investors in a fund the Right to control how their Shares vote on Issues they care about. There remain Details to be worked out, but I believe the Principle will allow more democratic Control of a financial Sector in sore need of Discipline and which has forgotten that it should be a Servant to Society, not its Master.