Democratising Business: Towards Meaningful Participation in Business, Finance, and Value Chain Governance

Abstract

Fifty years of focus on short-term financial performance and maximising shareholder value has contributed to soaring inequality, unsustainable development, and global instability. The time is ripe to build a new type of economy, in which people have a meaningful voice. This Brief focuses specifically on the business sector. It presents examples of more participatory business, finance, and value chain governance, and highlights three conditions that have enabled meaningful participation in decision-making: distributed authority, inclusive processes of deliberation, and greater democratisation of knowledge. To conclude, four recommendations for democratising business are offered.