Relational Equality and Democracy in Managing Economic Enterprises

This thesis examines whether there is a case from relational equality for worker participation in the management of work organisations. It argues that: there is a prima facie case that workers in non-democratic enterprises are subordinated in the sense that Kolodny suggests is the case for disenfranchised citizens of non-democratic states and that relational equality requires democratic management of enterprises by workers or their elected representatives; hierarchical structures in firms and their supporting ethos also foster attitudes and behaviours incompatible with relational equality designated as ‘rankism’, examples of this include the devaluing of the epistemic capacities of subordinate workers that also constitutes a case of epistemic injustice; non-democratic decision-making in firms cannot be made compatible with relational equality by appealing to expertise considerations since the form of authority and decision-making in the firm are sufficiently analogous to political decision-making in states and there are no compelling grounds for supposing that worker representatives would lack the competence to manage firms effectively; state intervention to require democratisation of commercial enterprises does not violate plausible standards of liberal state neutrality or undermine what is usually considered valuable about freedom of association or other basic liberties; economic theory and evidence does not suggest an economy based largely on worker-managed businesses would have adverse effects on social welfare, but does indicate such businesses are unlikely to become a large share of the economy without direct state intervention; and enhancing worker power to exit employment, for example through a Universal Basic Income, would not transform the balance of power in the employment relationship or enhance meaningful autonomy for workers more than state intervention to require most firms to be democratically self-managed.