Economic Democracy and Financial Participation

Examines under what conditions profit-sharing schemes & employee shareholding can motivate workers & generate cooperative striving and identifies exactly which schemes have the potential to realise this cooperation.
The ideas behind economic democracy and financial participation are not new; the International Congress on Profit-sharing first met in Paris in 1889. The practical objective of many profit-sharing schemes was increased labour management co-operation. Some also had an ideal objective - the resolution of a perceived contradiction between concentrated wealth and power and the democratic ideal. In "Economic Democracy and Financial Participation", Daryl D'Art has two objectives. Firstly, to examine if, and under what conditions, profit-sharing schemes and employee shareholding can motivate workers and generate cooperative striving. Secondly, he identifies the schemes of financial participation which have the potential to realise economic democracy within the individual firm and society at large. To fulfill these objectives the author draws on the results of research carried out in the USA, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland. By making a comparative international study he contrasts an individualist approach to economic democracy with a collective approach. This book should be of interest to undergraduates and academics of economics, management, organizational behaviour, industrial relations, bu