Attending to the General Interest: New Mechanisms for Mediating between the Individual, Collective and General Interest in QuÈbec

We develop an approach to studying new business governance models and we illustrate how these models take the general interest into account. We outline the main prevailing trends, in the context of the QuÈbec model of development, and discuss the new conceptions of the state and of its role in governance. As a result of this, organizations and institutions are playing a new role in the pursuit of the general interest, which we examine using the 'Solidarity Fund' of the FÈdÈration des travailleurs et travailleuses du QuÈbec (FTQ). We suggest that a partnership-based governance model may help support the emergence of a new mixed economy that weds the general interest with individual and collective interests in an original way. Copyright CIRIEC, 2003.