The underlying tenet for CalPERS Global Principles of Accountable Governance is that fully accountable governance structures produce, over the long term, the best returns to shareowners. In general, CalPERS Global Principles encompass the following:

1. Corporate governance practices should focus board attention on optimizing over time the company's operating performance and returns to shareowners.
2. Directors should be accountable to shareowners, and management accountable to directors. To ensure this accountability, directors must be accessible to shareowner inquiry concerning their key decisions affecting the company's strategic direction.
3. Information about companies must be readily transparent to permit accurate market comparisons; this includes disclosure and transparency of objective globally accepted minimum accounting standard.
4. All investors must be treated equitably and upon the principle of one-share/one-vote.
5. Proxy materials should be written in a manner designed to provide shareowners with the information necessary to make informed voting decisions. Similarly, proxy materials should be distributed in a manner designed to encourage shareowner participation. All shareowner votes, whether cast in person or by proxy, should be formally counted; vote outcomes should be formally announced.
6. Each capital market in which shares are issued and traded should adopt its own Code of Best Practices; and, where such a code is adopted, companies should disclose to their shareowners whether they comply.
7. Corporate directors and management should have a long-term strategic vision that, at its core, emphasizes sustained shareowner value. In turn, despite differing investment strategies and tactics, shareowners should encourage corporate management to resist short-term behavior by supporting and rewarding long-term superior returns.