Boards of Directors and the Roman Senate
In The Responsibility Virus (volume 20 of the book club reading list) Roger Martin discusses the tendency of Boards of Directors to become powerless yes-men, when faced with a domineering CEO. This is in contrast to their intended role as wise greybeards, advisors or even coaches who keep the Chief Executive on the sraight and narrow.
This seems vaguely analogous to what happened to the Roman Senate as their Empire declined; instead of keeping the Emperor in check, they had to curry favour for fear of their personal safety (and probably family fortune, too: I imagine more than one Senator got his possessions confiscated).
It would be interesting to know whether the advisory influence of large corporations’ Boards of Directors tends to be weaker at firms where the CEO is paid more. The Wall St. Journal recently carried an article reaffirming that power corrupts; in their context, as people gain power, they act more like jerks. Transposing this lesson historically, maybe if Marc Antony had won, Caligula would’ve ended up as a very polite cobbler…