ABSTRACT

When this book was first published in 1990, there were massive economic changes in the East and significant economic challenges to the West. This critical analysis of democratic theory discusses the principles and forces that push both socialist and capitalist economies toward a common ground of workplace democratization.

This book is a comprehensive approach to the theory and practice of the "Democratic firm" – from philosophical first principles to legal theory and finally to some of the details of financial structure. The argument for economic democracy supports private property, free markets and entrepreneurship for instance, but fundamentally it replaces the employer/employee relationship with democratic membership in the firm.

For students, teachers, policy makers and others interested in the application of democracy to the workplace, this book will serve as a manifesto and a standard reference on the topic.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

part I|85 pages

Theory of the Democratic Firm

chapter 1|35 pages

The Labor Theory of Property

chapter 2|24 pages

Democratic Theory

chapter 3|24 pages

The Democratic Firm

part II|52 pages

Worker Ownership in America and Europe

chapter 4|10 pages

Worker Cooperatives

chapter 5|14 pages

Employee Stock Ownership Plans

chapter 6|12 pages

ESOP Analysis and Evaluation

chapter 7|14 pages

Model of a Hybrid Democratic Firm

part III|61 pages

Enterprise Reform in the Socialist World

chapter 8|16 pages

Enterprise Reform in Yugoslavia and China

chapter 9|21 pages

Reforms in the USSR, Hungary, and Poland

chapter 10|22 pages

Analysis of the Socialist Enterprise Reforms