Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T06:05:07.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Political and Economic Case for the Democratic Enterprise

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2009

Samuel Bowles  and
Herbert Gintis
Samuel Bowles
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Herbert Gintis
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

We consider two reasons why firms should be owned and run democratically by their workers. The first concerns accountability: Because the employment relationship involves the exercise of power, its governance should on democratic grounds be accountable to those most directly affected. The second concerns efficiency: The democratic firm uses a lower level of inputs per unit of output than the analogous capitalist firm.

Type
Essays
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , April 1993 , pp. 75 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alchian, Armen, and Demsetz, Harold. 1972. “Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization.” American Economic Review 62:777–95.Google Scholar
Almond, Gabriel, and Verba, Sidney. 1963. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowles, Samuel. 1985. “The Production Process in a Competitive Economy: Walrasian, Neo-Hobbesian, and Marxian Models.” American Economic Review 75,1:16–36.Google Scholar
Bowles, Samuel, and Gintis, Herbert. 1976. Schooling in Capitalist America. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bowles, Samuel, and Gintis, Herbert. 1990. “Contested Exchange: New Microfoundations of the Political Economy of Capitalism.” Politics and Society 18,2:165–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowles, Samuel, and Gintis, Herbert. 1976. Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bowles, Samuel, and Gintis, Herbert. 1993. “The Revenge of Homo Economicus: Post-Walrasian Economics and the Revival of Political Economy.” Journal of Economic Perspectives. Spring.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calvo, Guillermo. 1979. “Quasi-Walrasian Theories of Unemployment.” American Economic Review 69, 2:102–7.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert. 1985. Preface to the Theory of Economic Democracy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Domar, Evsey. 1966. “The Soviet Collective Farm as a Producer Cooperative.” American Economic Review 56:743–57.Google Scholar
Dow, Gregory. 1986. “Control Rights, Competitive Markets, and the Labor Management Debate.” Journal of Comparative Economics 10:48–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dow, Gregory. 1992. “Markets for Membership in the Labor-Managed Firm: A Simple General Equilibrium Model.” Mimeo.Google Scholar
Dreze, Jacques. 1976. “Some Theory of Labor Management and Participation.” Econometrica 44:1125–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreze, Jacques. 1989. Labour Management, Contracts, and Capital Markets. Oxford, Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Elster, Jon, and Moene, Karl. 1989. “Introduction.” In Alternatives to Capitalism, edited by Elster, Jon and Moene, Karl, pp. 1–35. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Furubotn, Eirik G., and Pejovich, Svetozar. 1974. The Economics of Property Rights. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
Gauthier, David. 1986. Morals by Agreement. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Gintis, Herbert. 1976. “The Nature of the Labor Exchange and the Theory of Capitalist Production.” Review of Radical Political Economics 8,2:36–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gintis, Herbert. 1989a. “Financial Markets and the Political Structure of the Enterprise.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 1:311–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gintis, Herbert. 1989b. “The Principle of External Accountability in Financial Markets.” In The Firm as a Nexus of Treaties, edited by Aoki, Masahiko, Gustafsson, Bo, and Williamson, Oliver, pp. 289–302. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Gintis, Herbert, and Ishikawa, Tsuneo. 1987. “Wages, Work Discipline, and Unemployment.” Journal of Japanese and International Economies 1:195–228.Google Scholar
Hansmann, Henry. 1990. “When Does Worker Ownership Work? ESOPs, Law Firms, Codetermination, and Economic Democracy.” Yale Law Journal 99:1749–1816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, Michael C., and Meckling, William H.. 1979. “Rights and Production Functions: An Application to Labor-Managed Firms and Codetermination.” Journal of Business 52:469–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohn, Melvin. 1969. Class and Conformity: A Study in Values. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.Google Scholar
Levine, David I., and Tyson, Laura d'Andrea. 1990. “Participation, Productivity, and the Firm's Environment.” In Paying for Productivity, edited by Blinder, Alan. Washington, DC: Brookings.Google Scholar
Meade, James E. 1972. “The Adjustment Processes of Labour Co-operatives with Constant Returns to Scale and Perfect Competition.” Economic Journal 82:402–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nozick, Robert. 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Ognedal, Tone. 1993. “Unstable Ownership.” In The Microfoundations of Political Economy: Participation, Accountability, and Efficiency, edited by Bowles, Samuel, Gintis, Herbert, and Gustafsson, Bo, pp. 248–59. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1970. Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putterman, Louis. 1984. “On Some Recent Explanations of Why Capital Hires Labor.” Economic Inquiry 22:171–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samuelson, Paul. 1957. “Wages and Interests: A Modern Dissection of Marxian Economics.” American Economic Review 47:884–912.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Carl, and Stiglitz, Joseph E.. 1984. “Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device.” American Economic Review 74,3:433–44.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, Joseph, and Weiss, Andrew. 1981. “Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information.” American Economic Review 71:393–411.Google Scholar
Vanek, Jaroslav. 1970. The General Theory of Labor-Managed Market Economies. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Ward, Benjamin. 1958. “The Firm in Illyria: Market Syndicalism.” American Economic Review 48:566–89.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver E. 1984. “The Economics of Governance: Framework and Implications.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 140:195–223.Google Scholar
Wittman, Donald. 1989. “Why Democracies Produce Efficient Results.” Journal of Political Economy 97,6:1395–1424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar