What Is It?

In a broad sense, Economic Democracy is any system that aims to make the operation of the economy accountable not only to wealthy capital holders but to citizens and the public in general. The basic idea is that because the economy has a pervasive impact in people’s lives, then individuals ought to have a say in the decisions over how it is deployed. Both the firm and capital investment are two components of the economy whose democratization is generally seen as especially important.

Democratic accountability of the economy requires a meaningful degree of public control over productive assets, but whether it also requires public ownership over productive assets is debated (there is a similar debate amongst workplace democrats). An example of the latter is the system of Democratic Socialism: where the means of production are socially owned, the labour market is replaced with worker cooperatives, and capital investment is undertaken through a system of public banks. Meanwhile proposals that aim to give the wider public control (but not necessarily ownership) over economic decisions include systems where corporate decisions are accountable to citizen bodies/juries, and where local organizations are represented in decisions over community investment.

Some Readings:

• O’Neill, Martin and Pablo Gilabert. 2024. “Socialism” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  
• Schweickart, David. 2016. “Economic Democracy”
  
• Vrousalis, Nicholas. 2019. “Workplace Democracy Implies Economic Democracy,” Journal of Social Philosophy 50(3): 259-279.
  
• Bennett, Michael and Rutger Claassen. 2024. “The Corporate Social Assessment: Making Public Purpose Pay,” Review of Social Economy 82(1): 147-175.