Democratizing The Corporation – Isabelle Ferreras

Therefore, shareholders should not be thought of as “capital investors” in established publicly traded firms, though they may be truly investors in privately held firms (and in non-US contexts). However, the complex chain of financial intermediation through the asset manager industry means that even in privately held companies where shares are not largely held by one owner or one family, the holder of economic title to shares (a person contributing to their employer pension fund or retirement account) is distinct from the holder of legal title, the asset manager, who is themselves not a “capital investor.”

The most compelling justifications for instituting workers as directors include both normative claims that workers should have voice and instrumental claims that voice will improve corporate productivity. Workers serving on corporate boards can participate in business decision-making and create greater visibility and consideration for the effects of those decisions on workers.12 Employees’ firm-specific investments should be seen as a key driver of improved firm productivity over time.

As workers become experts in their roles, they produce more efficiently and contribute to shared best practices. Because firms require specific knowledge and experience, employees have highly undiversified risk in the corporation where they work and face significant hardship if their employer shuts down or leaves the country.13 As Clyde Summers puts it, The employees may have made a much greater investment in the enterprise by their years of service, may have much less ability to withdraw, and may have a greater stake in the future of the enterprise than many of the stockholders.14 It is much harder to go on unemployment, relocate, or go back to school for new skills if employment ends than for a shareholder to sell shares out of a diversified portfolio.

Most employees still hold only one job. As health care and retirement benefits in the United States are typically structured as employment benefits, employees’ dependence on the success of the firm runs even deeper than income compensation.

The Real Utopias Project Series Editors: Erik Olin Wright and Tom Malleson The Real Utopias Project embraces a tension between dreams and practice. It is founded on the belief that what is pragmatically possible is not fixed independently of our imaginations but is instead shaped by our visions. The fulfillment of such a belief involves “real utopias”—utopian ideals grounded in the real potentials for redesigning social institutions.

In its attempt at sustaining and deepening serious discussion of radical alternatives to existing social practices, the Real Utopias Project examines various basic institutions—property rights and the market, secondary associations, the family, and the welfare state, among others—and focuses on specific proposals for their fundamental redesign.

The books in the series are the result of workshop conferences, at which groups of scholars respond to provocative manuscripts. OceanofPDF.com Democratizing the Corporation: The Bicameral Firm and Beyond Edited by Isabelle Ferreras, Tom Malleson, and Joel Rogers OceanofPDF.com First published by Verso 2024 Collection © Verso 2024 Contributions © Contributors 2024 All rights reserved The moral rights of the authors have been asserted 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Verso UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG US: 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217 versobooks.com Verso is the imprint of New Left Books ISBN-13: 978-1-80429-453-6 ISBN-13: 978-1-80429-454-3 (UK EBK) ISBN-13: 978-1-80429-455-0 (US EBK) British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ferreras, Isabelle, editor.

| Malleson, Tom, editor. | Rogers, Joel, 1952- editor. Title: Democratizing the corporation : the bicameral firm and beyond / edited by Isabelle Ferreras, Tom Malleson, and Joel Rogers. Description: London ; Brooklyn, NY : Verso, 2024. | Series: The real utopias project | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2023041740 (print) | LCCN 2023041741 (ebook) | ISBN 9781804294536 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781804294550 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Management—Employee participation.

| Employee empowerment. | Corporate governance. | Democracy—Economic aspects. Classification: LCC HD5650 .D448 2024 (print) | LCC HD5650 (ebook) | DDC 658.3/152— dc23/eng/20231020 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023041740 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023041741 Typeset in Minion by Biblichor Ltd, Scotland Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY OceanofPDF.com I.

1. II. 2. 3. III. 4. 5. 6. Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction, Tom Malleson and Joel Rogers The Proposal Democratizing the Corporation: The Proposal of the Bicameral Firm, Isabelle Ferreras Democracy at Work The Progressive Era’s Public Firm, Carly R. Knight Workplace Democracy, the Bicameral Firm, and Stakeholder Theory, Marc Fleurbaey The Corporation and the Law Fallacies about Corporations: Comments on “Democratizing the Corporation,” David Ellerman Prospects for Democratizing the Corporation in US Law, Robert F.

Freeland Economic Democracy at Work: Why (and How) Workers Should Be Represented on US Corporate Boards, Lenore Palladino IV. 7. 8. 9. V. 10. 11. 12. 13. VI. 14.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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• Pages: 340
• Language: English (en)

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