The war on woke capitalism: State deployment of discursive power in the backlash to responsible investment

Abstract This article examines the political backlash to “woke capitalism” in the USA in the context of the introduction of anti-ESG legislation across 18 US states. This article asks what this backlash reveals about the evolving power dynamic between business and the state through analysing the problematisation of responsible investment in Florida Governor Ronald DeSantis’ “war on woke.” This article finds that the state frames socially and environmentally responsible investment as the imposition of an ideological agenda by “martini millionaires” at the expense of the democratic will and economic liberty of “everyday Americans.” This article makes a novel contribution to understandings of the power dynamic between business and the state, through a focus on discursive power, and identification of investment as an underexamined arena of political contestation, demonstrating that the trigger for state pushback on “woke capitalism” is when business goes beyond virtue-signalling to embrace systemic change.