IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rsocec/v55y1997i4p487-508.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Workers' Participation in the United States: Catholic Social Teaching and Democratic Theory

Author

Listed:
  • S. J. Philip
  • J. Chmielewski

Abstract

Workers' participation has stirred renewed interest because of recent economic and political transformation. The article presents workplace participation as key in maintaining democratic values. The tenth anniversary of Economic Justice for Allprovides the occasion to reexamine its social ethical arguments for workplace participation. The weight of those arguments is assessed in light of: their wide, antecedent background in theory and practice manifested in both the U.S. and Germany, the modern effectiveness of works' councils, and the extension of the ethical arguments in more recent Catholic social teaching. The article examines the theological and philosophical principles of Economic Justice for Allas they bear on economic participation. Central to these arguments is the fostering of free personal activity within a diverse, institutionally plural society. Toward society's common good, economic participation directs productive and service activites. The traditional category of subsidiarity offers a channel along which contemporary democratic analysis can invigorate the social teaching tradition, namely, in highlighting the functions of communication, information transfer, and education within cooperative activity. Such cooperation addresses the gap in structures of representation as well as the ethical requirement of secured expression. Workers' participation effectively represents and sustains democratic culture.

Suggested Citation

  • S. J. Philip & J. Chmielewski, 1997. "Workers' Participation in the United States: Catholic Social Teaching and Democratic Theory," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(4), pages 487-508.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:55:y:1997:i:4:p:487-508
    DOI: 10.1080/00346769700000019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00346769700000019
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00346769700000019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joel Rogers & Wolfgang Streeck, 1995. "Works Councils: Consultation, Representation, and Cooperation in Industrial Relations," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number roge95-1, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Deakin, S. & Koukiadaki, A., 2011. "Capability Theory, Employee Voice and Corporate Restructuring: Evidence from UK Case Studies," Working Papers wp429, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    2. Sofie Balcaen & Sophie Manigart & Hubert Ooghe, 2011. "From distress to exit: determinants of the time to exit," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 407-446, August.
    3. Uwe JIRJAHN & Stephen C. SMITH, 2018. "Nonunion Employee Representation: Theory And The German Experience With Mandated Works Councils," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(1), pages 201-233, March.
    4. Uwe Jirjahn & Jens Mohrenweiser & Stephen C Smith, 2022. "Works councils and workplace health promotion in Germany," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(3), pages 1059-1094, August.
    5. Thorsten Schank & Claus Schnabel & Joachim Wagner, 2004. "Works councils - sand or grease in the operation of German firms?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 159-161.
    6. John S Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn & Annika Pfister, 2020. "Product market competition and employer provided training in Germany [Technical change, inequality and the labor market]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 29(2), pages 533-556.
    7. Josheski, Dushko, 2012. "Socially - optimal level of co-determination of labor and the European directive on workers' councils," MPRA Paper 38196, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Susanne Prantl & Alexandra Spitz-Oener, 2020. "The Impact of Immigration on Competing Natives' Wages: Evidence from German Reunification," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(1), pages 79-97, March.
    9. Gary Gorton & Frank Schmid, 2000. "Class Struggle Inside the Firm: A Study of German Codetermination," NBER Working Papers 7945, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Becht, Marco & Bolton, Patrick & Roell, Ailsa, 2003. "Corporate governance and control," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 1-109, Elsevier.
    11. Uwe Jirjahn, 2015. "Research on Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining in Germany: The Contribution of Labor Economics," Research Papers in Economics 2015-10, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    12. John Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn & Georgi Tsertsvardze, 2010. "Hiring older workers and employing older workers: German evidence," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(2), pages 595-615, March.
    13. Xavier Hollandts & Nicolas Aubert, 2019. "La gouvernance salariale : contribution de la représentation des salariés à la gouvernance d’entreprise," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 22(1), pages 63-88, March.
    14. Steffen Mueller & Jens Stegmaier, 2017. "The Dynamic Effects of Works Councils on Labour Productivity: First Evidence from Panel Data," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 55(2), pages 372-395, June.
    15. Mary O'Sullivan, 1998. "The Political Economy of Corporate Governance in Germany," Macroeconomics 9805004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Franziska Boneberg, 2010. "The Economic Consequences of one-third Codetermination in German Supervisory Boards: First Evidence for the Service Sector from a New Source of Enterprise Data," Working Paper Series in Economics 177, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    17. Adam Seth Litwin, 2011. "Technological Change at Work: The Impact of Employee Involvement on the Effectiveness of Health Information Technology," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 64(5), pages 863-888, October.
    18. A. van den Berg & Y.K. Grift & A. van Witteloostuijn & C. Boone & O. van der Brempt, 2013. "The effect of employee workplace representation on firm performance: A cross-country comparison within Europe," Working Papers 13-05, Utrecht School of Economics.
    19. Simon Eisele & Martin R. Schneider, 2020. "What Do Unions Do to Work Design? Computer Use, Union Presence, and Tayloristic Jobs in Britain," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 604-626, October.
    20. John S. Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn, 2002. "Payment Schemes and Gender in Germany," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 56(1), pages 44-64, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:55:y:1997:i:4:p:487-508. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRSE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.