TY - JOUR
T1 - Coopting change toward industrial democracy
T2 - Professionals as agents of structural constraint
AU - Darr, Asaf
AU - Stern, Robert N.
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - This paper asks why the democratic election of leaders, which is so fundamental an institution in much of Western society, is held sacred in the political sector of social life but rejected in the economic one. We propose that democracy stops at the factory gates partly because of the practices and ideologies of practice of the professionals who construct and maintain the boundaries between the workplace and the larger political sphere. Specifically, we compare the role of lawyers, accountants, and academics in situations where workers attempt to implement or maintain a democratic governance structure in the workplace, within a socialist and a capitalist economic order. We conclude that professionals act as cooptation agents for democratic ideas in both the capitalist and the socialist context.
AB - This paper asks why the democratic election of leaders, which is so fundamental an institution in much of Western society, is held sacred in the political sector of social life but rejected in the economic one. We propose that democracy stops at the factory gates partly because of the practices and ideologies of practice of the professionals who construct and maintain the boundaries between the workplace and the larger political sphere. Specifically, we compare the role of lawyers, accountants, and academics in situations where workers attempt to implement or maintain a democratic governance structure in the workplace, within a socialist and a capitalist economic order. We conclude that professionals act as cooptation agents for democratic ideas in both the capitalist and the socialist context.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0035995054&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1475-682X.00012
DO - 10.1111/1475-682X.00012
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0035995054
SN - 0038-0245
VL - 72
SP - 171
EP - 194
JO - Sociological Inquiry
JF - Sociological Inquiry
IS - 2
ER -