Recent events have definitively proven that the prevailing political-economic system is bankrupt: the vast majority of working people have experienced neither material gains nor meaningful democracy, with devastating political and economic consequences. I wish to argue that these two failures are intrinsically related, and in particular that they both stem from a lack of workplace participation.
Let me begin by clarifying that the deep-seated lack of democracy currently afflicting Western societies pertains not only to formal politics, which at least maintains the charade of elections, but also to the workplace, which is so unmistakably authoritarian that even free-market libertarians have called for its reform. Indeed, the primary failure of Western democracy is that it does not extend to the areas of life that most affect the demos. On the contrary, in the institution that provides them with their livelihood and occupies the majority of their waking hours, citizens remain subservient to a class of masters, who, through the influence thus acquired, end up dominating the pageant of political democracy as well.
The absence of workplace democracy is also a primary cause of our economic woes. The despotic structure of power within the firm is what allows a fortunate few to cream off the proceeds of growth, which, in turn, is thereby short-circuited through mechanisms that have now been irrefutably exposed in recent years. I mean, just think about it - if capitalism and democracy really are such natural bedfellows, as the high priests of neoliberalism are so fond of declaring, why does democracy not prevail in the very heart of capitalism, viz. the firm? The answer is that we live in a capitalist democracy, not in a democratic capitalism.
The idea that workplace participation would kill both the political bird (a lack of democracy) and the economic bird (stagnation and inequality) with one stone may sound like a pipe dream, not least because it contradicts the conventional (but receding) wisdom that 'soft', social reforms are inimical to economic progress. To be sure, it is no silver bullet, especially considering that the causation also runs in the opposite direction - as demonstrated by Theresa May's recent about-face on her promise to install workers on company boards, the lack of workplace democracy is a symptom as well as a cause of the political and economic maladies currently plaguing society. Indeed, from a Marxian perspective, the notion that capitalism can be reformed by democratising the workplace is self-contradictory; democratic capitalism is an oxymoron. In one way or another, however, the twin crises of economics and politics can only be solved in tandem, for they are two sides of the same coin.
Let me begin by clarifying that the deep-seated lack of democracy currently afflicting Western societies pertains not only to formal politics, which at least maintains the charade of elections, but also to the workplace, which is so unmistakably authoritarian that even free-market libertarians have called for its reform. Indeed, the primary failure of Western democracy is that it does not extend to the areas of life that most affect the demos. On the contrary, in the institution that provides them with their livelihood and occupies the majority of their waking hours, citizens remain subservient to a class of masters, who, through the influence thus acquired, end up dominating the pageant of political democracy as well.
The absence of workplace democracy is also a primary cause of our economic woes. The despotic structure of power within the firm is what allows a fortunate few to cream off the proceeds of growth, which, in turn, is thereby short-circuited through mechanisms that have now been irrefutably exposed in recent years. I mean, just think about it - if capitalism and democracy really are such natural bedfellows, as the high priests of neoliberalism are so fond of declaring, why does democracy not prevail in the very heart of capitalism, viz. the firm? The answer is that we live in a capitalist democracy, not in a democratic capitalism.
The idea that workplace participation would kill both the political bird (a lack of democracy) and the economic bird (stagnation and inequality) with one stone may sound like a pipe dream, not least because it contradicts the conventional (but receding) wisdom that 'soft', social reforms are inimical to economic progress. To be sure, it is no silver bullet, especially considering that the causation also runs in the opposite direction - as demonstrated by Theresa May's recent about-face on her promise to install workers on company boards, the lack of workplace democracy is a symptom as well as a cause of the political and economic maladies currently plaguing society. Indeed, from a Marxian perspective, the notion that capitalism can be reformed by democratising the workplace is self-contradictory; democratic capitalism is an oxymoron. In one way or another, however, the twin crises of economics and politics can only be solved in tandem, for they are two sides of the same coin.
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