Migration and Demos in the Democratic Firm: An Extension of the State-Firm Analogy

• Published date: 01 June 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00905917231154422
• Author: Patrick J. L. Cockburn,Jonathan Preminger
• Date: 01 June 2023

https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917231154422

Political Theory

2023, Vol. 51(3) 557 –580

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/00905917231154422

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Article

Migration and Demos in

the Democratic Firm:

An Extension of the

State-Firm Analogy

Patrick J. L. Cockburn1 and

Jonathan Preminger2

Abstract

Debates around the state-firm analogy as a route to justifying workplace

democracy tend toward a static view of both state and firm and position

workplace democracy as the objective. We contend, however, that states

and firms are connected in ways that should alter the terms of the debate,

and that the achievement of workplace democracy raises a new set of political

issues about the demos in the democratic firm and “worker migration” at

the boundaries of the firm. Our argument thus contains two key steps: first,

drawing on an empirical case study of a worker-owned firm, we enrich the

state-firm analogy by developing a more dynamic view of both, focusing on

the creation of workplace democracies, worker movement in and out of

them, the dynamic meanings of “citizenship” within them, and the status

of the unemployed in a world of democratic workplaces. Second, we then

argue that in moving to a more sociological view of the state, the things we

were comparing begin to show their real-world connections to one another.

By going beyond the idealized view of states that has distorted the state-

firm analogy debates, we arrive at a more robust view of how widespread

workplace democracy might reconfigure basic political relationships in

society.

1Department of Politics, Philosophy and International Relations, Swansea University, Singleton

Campus, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

2Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Colum Drive, Cardiff, UK

Corresponding Author:

Dr. Jonathan Preminger, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Aberconway Building,

Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU, UK.

Email: premingerj@cardiff.ac.uk

1154422PTXXXX10.1177/00905917231154422Political TheoryCockburn and Preminger

research-article2023

558Political Theory 51(3)

Keywords

state-firm analogy, workplace democracy, employee ownership, citizenship,

migration, borders

Introduction

Recent debates in political philosophy have seen numerous critiques and

defenses of the analogy between states and firms. What is at stake in these

debates is the question of whether we can interpret the relationships within

firms as political relationships so that we can subsequently apply democratic

standards to them (Frega 2020a; Frega, Herzog, and Neuhäuser 2019;

González-Ricoy 2022; Landemore and Ferreras 2016; Mayer 2001). Work

in employment relations and organization studies, on the other hand, has

empirically explored alternatives to traditional hierarchical firms, assessing

their potential as democratic frameworks for organizing business in a capi-

talist economy (e.g., Pendleton 2001; Rothschild and Russell 1986; Varman

and Chakrabarti 2004). Thus, for example, work on employee ownership

(EO) has shown that EO organizations can indeed operate in accordance

with ethical standards and develop a sense of moral community necessary

for more egalitarian, and potentially more democratic, structures of deci-

sion-making and economic entitlement (e.g. Preminger 2021; Summers and

Chillas 2021).

What has not been explored in these respective fields of research, and

which we can explore by connecting them, are the problems of how the

demos in a democratic firm is formed and how workers are included or

excluded at the boundaries of that firm. If the analogy with states holds, then

we should be able to explore these as problems concerning “citizenship” and

“migration.” The point here is that justifying workplace democracy is one

thing, whereas investigating the political issues concerning inclusion that are

generated by workplace democracy is quite another. We, therefore, aim to

examine the achievement of workplace democracy not as the endpoint of this

debate about justice in economic life but rather as the starting point for a new

set of political issues about “worker migration” and the boundaries of firms.

How, for example, is the demos of a democratic firm formed? How do work-

ers join and leave this political community? What does citizenship mean for

those who have a stake in a workplace democracy? And finally, if workers in

firms are like citizens, then how should we conceptualize persons who are

“stateless”—either because they are unemployed or because they work with

very loose attachments to the firms with which they engage (in agency work,

temporary work, or seasonal work)? All of these issues require that we study