That Which Affects All Should be Decided by All:

A Normative Justification of Stakeholder Democracy

Abstract

People often have trouble delineating the legitimate boundaries of “demos,” or people who are entitled to govern themselves. This article addresses the democratic boundary problem by examining the principle of affected interests (PAI), which states that everyone affected by a decision should be able to participate in making it. PAI is used to expand on three points: 1) the definition of affected interests, 2) how to consider the indeterminacy of affectedness, and 3) whether the preferences of different stakeholders hold different weights. Global Stakeholder Democracy (GSD), proposed by Terry Macdonald, interprets PAI in a particular way; namely, Macdonald argues that “public power,” which may threaten individuals’ autonomy, should be controlled during deliberations among stakeholders, all of whom have an equal weighted voice. This article concludes that GSD introduces multiple ways to take part in collective self-determination processes through various functional demos―in addition to conventional legal demos―and thus can promote a more appropriate delineation of boundaries.