ABSTRACT

Following the short history of democracy in the previous chapter, this one goes into more depth on how the ideas behind stakeholder democracy developed and how they fit current thinking. It explains stakeholder democracy as a strengthening of present-day Madisonian (representative) democracy and a step towards Jeffersonian (participatory) democracy. It explains how the theory change we are using is that involving stakeholders in the decision-making process will result in better-informed decisions by governments at all levels. It further argues that involving stakeholders in the decision-making process makes them more likely to partner with each other and with governments at all levels to help deliver on the commitments associated with those agreements.