vested interest

Meaning

Noun

• An indefeasible right or title, distinguished from a contingent interest, which could be defeated (i.e. cease) if a certain event occurred.
• A fixed right granted to an employee, especially under a pension plan.
• A stake, often financial, in a particular outcome.
• A group of people or organizations with such a stake, especially those that seek to control an existing system or activity from which they derive benefit.
• An exceptionally strong interest in protecting or promoting something to one's own advantage.

Origin

• Popularized in sociology by Thorstein Veblen, The Vested Interests and the Common Man (1919).