1d ago

Why are many businesses in democratic nations largely undemocratic?

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Well, there's nothing inherent about democracy. Nothing about reality inherently forces society towards a democracy.
Our democracies are just as socially constructed as our workplace structures. One of them (society) we've managed to make democratic. The other (businesses) are much smaller, and larger in number, and thus harder to influence overall as a system, thus it's taking us much longer to push them towards democratic structures as well.
- You get where I was going with this! It's exactly that constructed form, and the supposed favoring of it, that led to my asking this.
  If a society claims to embrace democracy, but doesn't extend this to the organization of its businesses, how much do they embrace democratic values?
  
  Why would a privately owned business need to be democratic? What is the advantage of giving all employees an equal say regardless if theor skills and understanding of the business from a business perspective rather than a moral one? I cannot see any reason to give the guy who is not permitted access to all the secrets and finances equal say with the folks that have this access.
  Have you ever owned, managed, or run a business before?
  
  how much do they embrace democratic values?
  Not as much as we'd like, unfortunately. A lot of people are DINOs. (Democracy In Name Only)
  
  Or many of use are practical minded adults who have run or managed businesses and thus are reflecting on real world experiences rather than viewing this theoretically.
  My union warehouse steward is illiterate. He legitimately cannot read due to undiagnosed and unaddressed learning disabilities. He shouldn't be having an equal say in what to do with finances as my boss who is an ex-CPA. I should also have no say in corporate finances because Im bad at math. The business would be much worse off if the warehouse steward or I had a say.
- Violence tends to speed things along.
  Just sayin.
  
  Not in this case it does not.

54 comments