Work

Workplace Democracy as the Liberal Republican Default

Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Liberal republican justice requires adequate, reasonably equal protection against domination while giving everybody a reasonably equal opportunity to live their lives as they see fit. This article investigates which central policy follows from it for workplace non-domination, under realistic assumptions about the nature of our working lives and some structural characteristics of advanced economies (especially the presence of large firms). It argues for a legal default of workplace democracy, understood as any arrangement that gives workers equal individual control rights over the management of their firm, and, as a body, more control rights than any other groups of enfranchised stakeholders, taken together. The argument has two steps. The first demonstrates where the most promising alternative liberal strategy – that of enhancing all individuals’ power to exit from their job through granting unconditional resources – fails. The second shows how this failure leads to the specific conception of default workplace democracy outlined.
Language: English
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,450
OpenAlex ID: W4402546349
FWCI: 30.86
Cites: 59
Cited by: 19
Related to: 10