Industrial Work and Political Participation: Beyond "Simple Spillover"
| Date | 01 June 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591299604900204 |
| Author | Kelley Daniel,Edward S. Greenberg,Leon Grunberg |
| Published date | 01 June 1996 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
305
Industrial
Work
and
Political
Participation:
Beyond
"Simple
Spillover"
EDWARD
S.
GREENBERG,
UNIVERSITY
OF
COLORADO,
BOULDER
LEON
GRUNBERG,
UNIVERSITY
OF
PUGET
SOUND
KELLEY
DANIEL,
UNIVERSITY
OF
COLORADO,
BOULDER
We
suggest
that
the
"simple
political
spillover"
hypothesis—that
participation
in
decision
making
at
work
increases
the
probability
of
participating
in
poli-
tics
outside
the
workplace—ought
to
be
respecified
in
such
a
way
that
it
takes
into
account
(1)
the
possible
differential
effects
on
political
participation
of
direct
and
representational
forms
of
decisional
participation
at
work;
(2)
the
possibility
that
the
pathway
between
workplace
and
political
participation
is
mediated
by
the
former’s
impact
on
psychological
outlooks;
and
(3)
the
pos-
sibility
that
participation
in
decision
making
in
economically
troubled
enter-
prises
may
diminish
political
participation.
Using
a
sample
of
1,247
workers
from
producer
cooperative,
employee
stock
ownership,
conventional
union,
and
conventional
non-union
wood
products
mills,
we
show
that
this
more
complex
spillover
model
gives
us
a
better
understanding
of
the
linkages
be-
tween
workplace
and
political
experiences.
Scholars
and
philosophers
working
in
the
participatory
democratic
tradition
generally
assume
the
existence
of
a
relatively
simple
association
in
democratic
societies
between
participation
in
workplace
decision
making
and
participa-
tion
in
politics
outside
the
workplace.
This
view
is
part
of
a
larger
&dquo;workplace
spillover&dquo;
tradition
which
suggests
that
experiences
at
work
have
strong
ef-
fects
on
attitudes
and
behaviors
outside
of
work,
including
organizational,
community,
and
leisure
involvement,
because
people
either
compensate
for
or
learn
from such
workplace
experiences
(Gardell
1976;
Goldthorpe
et
al.
1968;
Kohn
1977;
Kohn
and
Schooler
1983;
and
Staines
1980).
&dquo;Workplace
spillover&dquo;
takes
the
following
general
form
for
political
participation:
when
NOTE:
This
research
was
supported
by
grant
no.
AA98669-03
from
the
National
Institute
of
Alcohol
Abuse
and
Alcoholism
of
the
National
Institutes
of
Health.
The
authors
wish
to
thank
the
anonymous
reviewers
for their
very
helpful
comments
306
workplace
and
job
experiences
are
such
that
they
nurture
the
desire
and
the
skills
to
participate
in
social
institutions,
people
will
participate
in
politics.
When
work
and
job
are
such
that
they
fail
to
nurture
participatory
aspirations
and
skills,
people
are
discouraged
from
active
engagement
in
politics
(Bachrach
1967;
Barber
1984;
Blumberg
1968;
Cole
1919;
Dahl
1985;
Elden
1981;
Greenberg
1986;
Mason
1982;
Pateman
1970;
Peterson
1992;
and
Smith
1985).
We
suggest
that
while
the
&dquo;simple
political
spillover&dquo;
model
is
not
incorrect,
it
is
incomplete,
requiring
respecification.
We
have
been
forced
to
rethink
the
model
because
of
a
finding
from
our
present
research
which
was
designed,
in
part,
to
replicate
the
research
reported
in
Greenberg’s
Workplace
Democracy:
the
Political
Effects
of
Participation
(1986).
In
the
earlier
work,
data
for
which
were
collected
in
1978
and
1983,
Greenberg
reported
the
existence
of
a
significant
association
be-
tween
workplace
participation
and
participation
in
politics
outside
the
workplace.
Members
in
democratic
enterprises
(producer
cooperatives)
were
shown
to
be
more
likely
to
vote
than
workers
in
non-democratic
ones,
and
more
involved
in
community
affairs
and
political
campaigns,
confirming
&dquo;simple
political
spillover.&dquo;
&dquo;
In
the
current
research,
however,
data
for
which
were
collected
in
1993
in
three
cooperatives,
one
employee
stock
ownership
plan
company,
four
union
plants,
and
seven
non-union
plants
in
the
wood
products
industry
in
the
Northwest,
we
discovered
that
members
of
the
most
democratic
enterprises
were
the
least
likely
to
participate
in
outside
politics.
,
.
,
,,,
POLITICAL
SPILLOVER:
THEORY
AND
EMPIRICAL
FINDINGS
.
,
.
Participatory
democratic
theorists
argue
that
participation
in
decision
making
in
important
social
institutions
is
an
educative
tool
for
the
creation
of
demo-
cratic
citizens;
J.
S.
Mill,
G.
D.
H.
Cole,
Robert
Dahl,
Carol
Pateman,
and
others,
suggest
that
being
involved
in
democratic
social
relations
in
a
variety
of
institutions
helps
people
gain
the
confidence,
knowledge,
and
outlooks
that
enable
them
to
be
effective,
participatory
citizens
in
the
larger
society
(Bachrach
1967;
Barber
1984;
Blumberg
1968;
Cole
1919;
Dahl
1970;
Dahl
1985;
Elden
1981;
Greenberg
1986;
Mason
1982;
Pateman
1970;
Peterson
1992;
and
Smith
1985).
To
many
of
these
theorists,
the
workplace
is
the
key
institution
in
society
for
citizen
education
because
of
the
centrality
of
work
in
the
lives
of
people,
the
close
congruence
of
many
workplace
authority
pat-
terns
to
the
authority
patterns
of
political
life
(Almond
and
Verba
1963;
Ma-
son
1982;
Sigel
and
Hoskin
1977;
Sobel
1993),
and
the
power
of
workplace
and job
to
shape
psychosocial
outlooks
(Kohn
1977;
Kohn
and
Schooler
1983).
Thus,
it
is
often
argued,
if
workplace
arrangements
encourage
worker
partici-
pation
in
decision
making,
workers
are
more
likely
to
be
participatory
citi-
zens ;
if
workplace
arrangements
do
not
allow
for
participation,
the
participatory
aspects
of
citizenship
are
likely
to
atrophy
(Dahl
1970;
Pateman
1970).
As
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