Abstract
Stakeholder analysis is an influential instrument of power. Beginning with taking a decision as to who will and who will not be involved in the analysis (i.e. who is and who is not a stakeholder), followed by the way the analyst interprets the views of various stakeholders, and up to the assessment of the stakeholders'' influence and to their classification, the research analyst provides the client (a decision-maker) with a message regarding who is important and who is not, who should be taken into consideration and who not.
The aim of this paper is to produce a missing theoretical guidance, with an emphasis on the issue of how to work with stakeholders whose voice is usually inaudible, even though it should be heard by definition (since they are stakeholders). It should be heard also given the efforts for the democratization of policy analysis and for a more active stakeholder participation in political decision-making.