taxpayers qua taxpayers (new version)

Hi,

Could anybody help me with the underlined sentence? I am not sure about its meaning.

A stakeholder is someone who has made a significant investment in the
program, either financial or psychological. Taxpayers qua taxpayers are usually below the threshold of significance, unless there has been high visibility and much political discussion (e.g., the space program). Program staff are stakeholders. (A school board that told a superintendent to get an evaluation done of some program in the district is a stakeholder, not a client.)

Thanks a lot.

[RonBee]

In my opinion, "below the threshold of significance" means that those referred to by that term can be safely ignored. BTW, the sentence in question does not need the first two words.

8)

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by Celia

Hi,

Could anybody help me with the underlined sentence? I am not sure about its meaning.

A stakeholder is someone who has made a significant investment in the
program, either financial or psychological. Taxpayers qua taxpayers are usually below the threshold of significance, unless there has been high visibility and much political discussion (e.g., the space program). Program staff are stakeholders. (A school board that told a superintendent to get an evaluation done of some program in the district is a stakeholder, not a client.)

Thanks a lot.

Thanks for adding some context. A Stakeholder is a person or organization that must be taken into account by a business or organization. If one ignores important stakeholders, one usually loses customers, market share, or opportunities. This sentence is saying that ordinary taxpayers are not important to this particular venture, but others (who also pay taxes) may be important. That is why they used "qua taxpayers" in that sentence.