Introduction

In the mid-1990s, stakeholding appeared to be both a politically and ideologically contentious concept. This was largely due to the diverse national contexts from which it emerged and its identification with an array of different welfare states and economic and organisational models. In Britain, the stakeholding debate brought into the foreground the merits of a re-cast Keynesianism committed to near full employment, appropriate capital and corporate restraints, long term investment and universal protection for the unemployed or physically or mentally infirm. As part of this development, the stakeholding debate became displaced by a surge of interest in Third Way politics, with stakeholding appearing only as a supplementary term in political rhetoric. Civil society is taking a prominent focus in terms of social and political changes occurring at the sub-state level and also in relation to states' attempts to accommodate, intervene and manage these changes.