{"insight":{"id":"69609950","lede":"Some worry that passing a codetermination mandate would motivate companies to organize just beneath qualifying criteria to avoid the mandate. In Finland, this study finds no evidence of such behavior.","slug":"there-is-no-evidence-that-finnish-firms-seek-to-avoid-falling-under-the-codetermi","title":"There is no evidence that Finnish firms seek to avoid falling under the codetermination law","showTitleAsQuote":null,"epistemicStatus":"","reports":[{"id":"69359365","title":"Codetermination","slug":"codetermination"}],"tags":[{"slug":"economic-democracy","name":"Economic Democracy","id":"69609474","lede":"

Since Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of agrarian America in the 1800's, the ideals of liberty and equality have often been seen as in conflict.

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But as Robert Dahl writes: "...the agrarian economy and society on which it was based underwent a revolutionary transformation into a new system of commercial and industrial capitalism that automatically generated vast inequalities of wealth, income, status, and power. These inequalities were in turn a result of liberty of a certain kind–liberty to accumulate unlimited economic resources and to organize economic activity into hierarchically governed enterprises."

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Or, as David Schweickart comments: "Contemporary capitalism celebrates democracy, yet denies us our democratic rights at precisely the point where they might be utilized most immediately and concretely: at the place where we spend most of the active and alert hours of our adult lives."

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Economic democracy, broadly, is the idea that decision-making power should not be the exclusive right of managers and shareholders, but held in equal by all stakeholders affected by those decisions. In practice, both Dahl & Schweickart see "workplace democracy" - from codetermination to worker-owned cooperatives - as one concrete manifestation of economic democracy.

\n","ledeExcerpt":"Economic democracy, broadly, is the idea that decision-making power should not be the exclusive right of managers and shareholders, but held in equal by all stakeholders affected by those decisions. In practice, both Dahl & Schweickart see \"workplace democracy\" - from codetermination to worker-owned cooperatives - as one concrete manifestation of economic democracy.","featured":null},{"slug":"implementation","name":"Implementation","id":"69609492","lede":"","ledeExcerpt":"","featured":true},{"slug":"corporate-governance","name":"Corporate Governance","id":"69359562","lede":"

Corporate governance describes "the processes, structures, and mechanisms that influence the control and direction of corporations" (Greg Shailer, 2018).

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"Control" refers to how stakeholders and other external groups influence those who are responsible for decision-making, while "direction" refers to the guidance and management of the corporation.

\n","ledeExcerpt":"Corporate governance describes \"the processes, structures, and mechanisms that influence the control and direction of corporations\" (Greg Shailer, 2018).\n\n\"Control\" refers to how stakeholders and other external groups influence those who are responsible for decision-making, while \"direction\" refers to the guidance and management of the corporation.","featured":null}],"sources":[{"id":"69609432","lede":"This study of Finnish codetermination uses both a difference-in-difference model and a qualitative survey of Finnish workers. They find a small reduction in layoffs, moderate increase in survey-based job satisfaction, wage increases for the lowest earners, and small, positive, but tenuous effects on firm survival, productivity, and capital intensity. Interviews suggest that Finnish codetermination facilitates information sharing and cooperation rather than shifting power to labor.","link":"http://economics.mit.edu/files/21196","slug":"voice-at-work","kind":"","title":"Voice at Work","year":"2021-06-01","researchers":[{"id":"69609412","location":"","name":"Jarkko Harju","seoDescription":"","slug":"jarkko-harju"},{"id":"69609426","location":"","name":"Simon Jäger","seoDescription":"","slug":"simon-jager"},{"id":"69609429","location":"","name":"Benjamin Schoefer","seoDescription":"","slug":"benjamin-schoefer"}]}]}}