He argues that the Anglo-Saxon model of shareholder capitalism is probably better suited to the current period of rapid technological change. Stakeholding was the fashionable philosophy of the mid-1990s. We're In offered an attractive deconstruction of free-market economics after the excesses of the 1980s. However, I now doubt the viability of stakeholding as a guide to policy. I accept the view that in a world where stocks are openly traded on the financial markets, firms are led to maximise shareholder value.
Companies perform best where they work in social partnership with employees.
But even if we tried to legislate for stakeholding, it is difficult to imagine how governments could alter corporate behaviour without drastic and unwieldy intervention. Yet if shareholder capitalism has triumphed in an era of global financial markets, this has major implications for those who actually live and work in the modern economy. It affects wage levels, the employment rights to which workers are entitled, working conditions, training, and how the work-life balance is managed. This raises some crucial questions. Turner's response is twofold.