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Aimed at political sciences students and teachers, Ferreras presents the new idea of 'economic bicameralism' to redefine firms as political entities.
List of contents
Introduction: what about the workers?; Part I. Critical History of Power in the Firm: The Slow Transition of Work from the Private to the Public Sphere: 1. Stage one: the workplace and its emergence from the household; 2. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries: workers' movements and the invention of collective bargaining; 3. The twentieth century and the ambiguities of institutional innovations in the capitalist firm; 4. The twenty-first century service economy is bringing work fully into the public sphere; Part II. What Is a Firm?: 5. Obsolete vision: instrumental rationality as the firm's sole logic; 6. Foundations for the political theory of the firm; Part III. Looking to the Future: From Political Bicameralism to Economic Bicameralism: 7. Bicameral movements: a pivotal institutional innovation for governments in democratic transition; 8. Analogy: the executive of the firm answering to a two-chamber parliament; Conclusions: a reader's guide for reflection and debate about economic bicameralism.
About the author
Isabelle Ferreras is a tenured fellow of the Belgian National Science Foundation, a professor of sociology at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and a senior research associate of the Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School, Massachusetts. A sociologist and political scientist by training, she is driven by the idea that the social sciences can make a difference. This book is the keystone of her long-term research into the tensions between capitalism and democracy.
Summary
Seeking a fresh perspective on one of the major issues of our day, global financial capitalism and its devastating effects on our democracies, this is an ideal text for students and teachers in the political sciences and philosophy; corporate and labor law; economic sociology; social and economic history; and industrial relations, business, and management.
