Economic Democracy

Economic democracy refers to a socio-economic arrangement where local economic institutions are democratically controlled by those engaged in the local economy. These economic institutions include business, finance, research and development, and education.........economic democracy also refers to the cooperative ownership of the local economy by all who participate. For many, this is a radical notion, one that carries unfortunate political baggage that has stymied a healthy debate about the merits of this type of economic organization. Economic democracy does not reject the role of markets, but because of the wide ownership structure, it alters the primacy of the profit-maximizing motive among economic decision makers.

Proponents of this form of economic organization argue that the realignment of interests that takes place begins to reconcile conflicts between the owners of productive assets and laborers, while rooting wealth in local communities. Cooperative businesses are one of the more natural firm types fitting within the model of economic democracy, be they worker, producer, consumer, or housing cooperatives.

Promoting Worker-Owned Cooperatives as a CED Empowerment Strategy: A Case Study of Colors and Lawyering in Support of Participatory Decision-Making and Meaningful Social Change, Carmen Huertas-Noble, CUNY School of Law, Clinical Law Review, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2010