Shareholder Ownership is Irrelevant for Shareholder Primacy

A COMMENTARY ON Alan Strudler (2017), “What to Do with Corporate Wealth?”, J Poli Philos 25(1): 108–126,
https://doi.org/10.1111/jopp.12106 

Strudler rejects shareholder primacy and argues that, once contractual obligations have been fulfilled and shareholders have received a reasonable return on investment, corporate executives may use corporate wealth for the general good. He seeks to establish this claim via an argument that, contrary to the received view, shareholders do not own corporations. After raising some questions about the latter argument, this commentary goes on to argue that the question of corporate ownership is a red herring. The argument for shareholder primacy that Strudler wants to reject does not rely on the premise that shareholders own the firm.