Small shareholders (less than 0.01% holdings) have essentially no voice in a corporation's policy; nor are they a consideration for the board of directors. Sometimes they are the beneficiaries of policies that are satisfying major stockholders, but not in a big way.

No, this metaphor does not work.

In what way does that meaningfully differ from the way a democracy is supposed to be run? Shareholders are treated as "voters" in a democratic organization, where 1 share = 1 vote.

Being a small shareholder is even worse.

True, the shareholder role is certainly better than the "employee" role for example.

> shareholders

Shareholders have zero say in how modern corporations are run.