George Soros: The Stateless Statesman

This case traces the business career and philanthropic activities of George Soros. The Hungarian-born Soros made a fortune as a hedge fund investor after establishing Quantum Fund on the tax haven island of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles in 1973 where he was largely free from regulation. He earned a notorious reputation as the “man who broke the Bank of England” in 1992 and for his role in the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. Soros also became one of the most generous donors to civil society projects around the world through his Open Society Foundations. His philanthropy promoted free speech, critical thinking, the rule of law, and education as a means of liberation. Soros played an important role in building civil society in post-Communist central and eastern Europe. From the 1990s he also became involved in politics in Western democracies such as the United States and Britain by funding opponents of right-wing populists. These endeavors resulted in Soros becoming the subject of conspiracy theories, and condemnation by many of the world’s populist leaders. The case provides a vehicle to examine the positive and negative dimensions of the philanthropic initiatives of business leaders, to explore the origins of right wing populism especially through the lens of the transition economy of Hungary, and to debate the contested relationship between capitalism and democracy.