Essay Database

"Stakeholder" is a term bandied about by professors, intellectuals, and others who subscribe to the notions that equality of outcome, not equality of opportunity, is the goal; that property rights can be disregarded when the cause is sufficiently noble and the intentions abundantly good; and that a voice in corporate governance need not be accompanied by risk. The popularity of this concept over the past 35 years has created a void in analytical thought. The term "…

…stakeholder theory should focus on the process whereby those who once had to be protected by non-shareholder statutes have become shareholders. The story of how market ownership evolved would offer the precision that stakeholder theory lacks. It would reveal the importance of property rights in preserving economic incentives. It also would show what laws can do when given the opportunity to work consistently and without countermand from those who believe they have a better system.