What's A Stakeholder, Anyway? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Jon Sanders, who is director of regulatory studies for the John Locke Foundation.

    The term "stakeholders" is used in policy debates frequently. It sounds good and steeped in important involvement. It seems less detached and predatory than "interested parties." It's an accepted convention of speech.

    By conventional use, it rarely denotes those who best qualify for the term. Politically speaking, the citizens themselves — though they have the most at stake — aren't thought of as stakeholders.

    In Lincoln's memorable description, the American system is "Government of the people, by the people, for the people." On the other hand, stakeholders tend to be of the lobbies, by the politicians, for the special interests.

    My column in Carolina Journal this week discussed the term in the context of a late addition to a farm bill. An excerpt:


    That provision has since been pulled.