Firms as Political Entities
Saving Democracy through Economic Bicameralism

Aimed at political sciences students and teachers, Ferreras presents the new idea of 'economic bicameralism' to redefine firms as political entities.

Isabelle Ferreras (Author)

9781108415941, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 October 2017

226 pages, 6 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.45 kg

'… the book is a refreshing addition to re-emerging debates on industrial democracy. It offers an exciting intellectual challenge and a creative spinning of theoretical arguments drawing on different disciplines and scholarly sources. With her brave and provocative policy contribution, Ferreras leans out from the academic ivory tower, engaging with burning social and political concerns. Her powerful and progressive language is also timely, at a moment when workers' participation is increasingly being reformulated and colonised by mainstream corporate governance and corporate social responsibility discourse. … The broader audience, particularly corporate managers, trade unionists and policy-makers of the reformist left, should welcome the publication and benefit from its engaging arguments. Be it the swansong of democracy at work, or the announcement of a social refounding of capitalism, this book guarantees food for thought and will leave the reader eager for the next instalment.' Sara Lafuente Hernández, Transfer

When people go to work, they cease to be citizens. At their desks they are transformed into employees, subordinate to the hierarchy of the workplace. The degree of their sense of voicelessness may vary from employer to employer, but it is real and growing, inflamed by populist propaganda that ridicules democracy as weak and ineffective amid global capitalism. At the same time, corporations continue untouched and even unremarked as a major source of the problem. Relying on 'economic bicameralism' to consider firms as political entities, this book sheds new light on the institutions of industrial relations that have marked the twentieth century, and argues that it is time to recognize that firms are a peculiar institution that must be properly organized in order to unshackle workers' motivation and creativity, and begin nurturing democracy again. For more information, please visit the accompanying website: www.firmsaspoliticalentities.net.

Introduction: what about the workers?
Part I. Critical History of Power in the Firm: The Slow Transition of Work from the Private to the Public Sphere: 1. Stage one: the workplace and its emergence from the household
2. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries: workers' movements and the invention of collective bargaining
3. The twentieth century and the ambiguities of institutional innovations in the capitalist firm
4. The twenty-first century service economy is bringing work fully into the public sphere
Part II. What Is a Firm?: 5. Obsolete vision: instrumental rationality as the firm's sole logic
6. Foundations for the political theory of the firm
Part III. Looking to the Future: From Political Bicameralism to Economic Bicameralism: 7. Bicameral movements: a pivotal institutional innovation for governments in democratic transition
8. Analogy: the executive of the firm answering to a two-chamber parliament
Conclusions: a reader's guide for reflection and debate about economic bicameralism.

Subject Areas: International organisations & institutions [LBBU], Industrial relations [KNXB], Economic history [KCZ], International relations [JPS], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP], Sociology: work & labour [JHBL], Social theory [JHBA], Sociology [JHB], History of ideas [JFCX]