The Anti-ESG Backlash and Asset Manager Capitalism

This article examines the growing backlash among conservative activists and politicians in the United States against the use of ESG (environmental, social, governance) investment criteria by large asset management companies. It also examines the theoretical implications of the backlash for the growing literature on asset manager capitalism that has often viewed their promotion of ESG—at least in the United States—as mainly performative. To explain why the backlash has been so intense, it argues that we need to reexamine the different forms of power exercised by the Big Three asset managers and why they came to be viewed as a significant threat by the fossil fuel industry. It further argues that, in examining the impact of these different forms of power, it is necessary to make a distinction between the origins of the backlash with the fossil fuel industry and its subsequent acceleration among conservative politicians and activists.