On economic bicameralism

(cont.) for both economic profitability and democratic justice, is explored after the roots of the idea of economic bicameralism in socio-economic history and existing socio-economic institutions (such as Works Councils) are reviewed. Economic bicameralism is thus an original form of governance of the firm with regards to both its philosophy and its institutions. It is founded on the recognition that two quests take place within the context of the firm, each of which is pursued primarily by one of the firm's two major agents, capital and labor. In the structure of economic bicameralism, two chambers, one representing each group of agents, govern the firm jointly. The Chamber of Capital assembles the investors in capital, who value an instrumental rationality while seeking profit as their foremost objective; and the Chamber of Labor assembles the investors in person, who display a political rationality and are best understood as seeking democratic justice as their primary goal. While investors in capital remain the sole legal shareholders of the bicameral firm, the governance of the firm is managed by these two chambers, which occupy an equal footing and are consequently bound to cooperate in order to allow the firm to function efficiently. The collaboration hence induced between investors in capital and investors in labor enables the firm to effectively respect the aspiration towards democratic justice that infuses the work experience with the objective of economic profitability that motivates first the investors in capital.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Political Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Ferreras, Isabelle, 1975-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joshua Cohen.

• Political Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28755

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/28755