Revista (PDF) - Universidade do Minho

THE CASE FOR STAKEHOLDING 227
has come too late for them, but they will have every interest in seeing
that their children gain this precious advantage when their time comes.
Obviously, the political calculus will look a lot different for older
voters. In making our fiscal calculations, Alstott and I have exempted
all retirement pensions paid by the American government from our
wealth tax. Nevertheless, most of America’s wealth is owned by
people over 55, and it is these people – the top ten percent of the entire
population – who will be confronting a hefty tax increase. Many can
be expected to oppose the program.
But I have never suggested that stakeholding is to everybody’s
advantage. Nor do I suppose that everybody’s position will be determined
by a narrow economic calculus. As in all political exercises,
each voter will come to judgment after filtering self-interest through a
sense of civic obligation and the substantive merits. Some will vote
against stakeholding even though their kids might profit mightily –
simply because they think it’s an awful idea. And vice versa.
Nevertheless, I have said enough to suggest that the political
potential of stakeholding is very considerable. This conclusion is also
suggested by some of the leading politicians of our age, who have
gained great followings through initiatives that bear a family resemblance
to our proposal. I have already mentioned Tony Blair’s recent
proposal, but even Margaret Thatcher took a step in the direction of
stakeholding.
When she became Prime Minister, 32 percent of all housing was
publicly owned. Though bent on sweeping privatization, Thatcher
refused to sell off these vast properties to big companies. She invited
residents to buy their own homes at bargain rates. With a single stroke,
she created a new property-owning citizenry, and won vast popularity
in the process.
A more sweeping initiative took place in the Czech Republic in the
aftermath of 1989. The Prime Minister, Vaclav Klaus, was confronting
a much larger task: the state sector contained 7,000 medium and
large-scale enterprises, 25,000 to 35,000 smaller ones. How to distribute
this legacy of Communism? Klaus saw his problem as an opportunity
to create a vast new property-owning class of Czech citizens.
The mechanism was the ingenious technique of «voucher privatization.»
Each Czech citizen was encouraged to subscribe to a book of
vouchers that he could use to bid for shares in state companies as they
were put on the auction block. An overwhelming majority – 8.5 out of
10.5 million – took up Klaus’ offer, and claimed their fair share of the
nation’s wealth as they moved into the new free-market system. Klaus’