Synopses & Reviews
There remains a widespread but erroneous belief that the country is locked in a cycle of measurable decline, in spite of the fact we are enjoying relative growth and prosperity. But economic growth no longer delivers the customary psychological dividend. The feel-good factor has mutated into the fear-all factor.
There is a hole in the heart of the system. In creating a more efficient economy we have thrown away much of what makes capitalism tolerable. The promise of lifetime employment has melted away with the death of paternalism. The current version of popular capitalism through privatization has failed to give people much sense of a stake in the prosperity of their nation. Welfare no longer fosters a sense of well being, since its own state of health is clearly overstretched and under funded. Economic efficiency has become an end in itself, creating a society fit for boardroom fat cats, but no one much else. In the Anglo-Saxon capital markets 'creative destruction, ' the strength of the capitalist system is turning into mere destruction.
In A Stake in the Future, John Plender argues that a powerful alternative does exist in the shape of the stakeholder concept. Stakeholding provides a resonant and flexible political language which stresses the values of inclusion and community, but is also based on hard economic reality.
Stakeholding views the firm as a community in which the directors act as trustees. Their role is to balance the interests of the various stakeholders, who include customers, shareholders, employees and suppliers. Unlike the present rough-and-tumble style of Anglo-Saxon capitalism which sanctifies shareholder value at the expense of all else, stakeholder theoryis in tune with a world where competitiveness stems increasingly from human capital and from the social capital created by fostering trust and loyalty between employees and other stakeholders. It makes competitiveness compatible with individual fulfillment at work.
The stakeholder solution provides an opportunity to tame the harsher aspects of capitalism without any loss of competitiveness. If the politicians fail to seize it there could, argues Plender, be a protectionist backlash which would condemn us to economic stagnation.
Synopsis
John Plender, an internationally-known and award winning journalist, argues for a new resonant and flexible political language that stresses values of inclusion and community, but that is also based on hard economic reality: stakeholding.