ABSTRACT
The modern firm is a component not just of the economic sphere – as it is typically understood – but also an extension of the political, cultural, and social spheres. Democratic forms of participation in the workplace, it has been argued, can encourage democratic consciousness and practices outside of the workplace, influencing civil society and stimulating broader economic reforms. These boundary-spanning features of participatory and democratic workplaces have come to be known as their spillover effects (Budd et al., 2018; DuFays et al., 2020; Rybnikova, 2022). For Carole Pateman (1970), who first clearly articulated and summarized what became known as the ‘spillover thesis’ in her landmark book Participation and Democratic Theory, heightened participation in the workplace converts organizations into learning spaces for increased participation in the greater polity. Pateman’s theoretical research on workplace participation and democracy has had a lasting legacy, fostering further research and thinking on the relationship between workplace democracy and wider political involvement and activism since the 1970s (see, e.g., Altshuler & Corrales, 2013; Dahl, 1985; Ferreras, 2017; Greenberg, 1986; Kim, 2021; Macpherson, 1977; Mason, 1982; Sobel, 1993).
