Introduction

This introductory chapter presents the major arguments and contributions of the political economy conception of the firm developed in the book. It specifies that firms are examined from the standpoint of labour, not capital, and that authority differs from authoritarianism in that it is a non-coercive form of power. The innovative features of the authority-based conception of the firm derive from the non-coercive character of authority, which implies seeing workers as actors rather than passive subjects of the firm, and consequently involving them in decision-making processes. Managerial authority calls for legitimacy, and this entails advocating democratic models of corporate governance. One of the major aims of the book is to contribute to a theoretical grounding for the democratic governance of firms.