Republicanism and Work

Abstract

Republican political theory has always had a twin focus: on the threat of domination by the state (imperium) and on the threat of domination by other social actors (dominium). This panel will focus generally on the latter problem with respect to the world of work and economic relations. Recent republican theory has helped reinvigorate longstanding concerns about alienation and work, posing questions about dominating relations within the workplace and the labour market, as well as the institutional conditions of these relations. Panelists will in particular explore the various current republican arguments for and against workplace democracy; whether republicanism and workplace democracy are compatible with private property or instead require a socialization of capital via economic democracy; the various pre-distributive polices and regulatory frameworks that might be necessitated by republican political economy and the conceptual problems and ambiguities attaching to these policies and frameworks; and the implications of republican theory for theorizing the contours and limits of professional or “expert” resistance to managerial organizational directives.