Axel --

Here are some suggestions for tracking down theorists (or  
"defenders") of workplace democracy --

First of all, pick up a copy of Carole Pateman, Participation and  
Democratic Theory (Cambridge U.P., 1970). She's a political theorist,  
and this was her first book, but she traces the idea of worker self- 
management back through Western political and economic thinkers  
succinctly--and when you think of it, workplace democracy is as much  
political theory as it is economics, One of the "defenders" she cites  
is Schumpeter. See http://books.google.com/books?id=7ZNiOo89Er4C

Second, think about where workplace democracy or anything like it has  
been practiced, and look at who wrote about it. Harro Maas suggested  
you try 19th C British theorists and utopian socialists, including a  
couple who put their ideas into action. There were many places and  
times in the 20th C when something close to democratic work relations  
was tried: to cite a few, anarchist cooperatives in Spain and  
Catalu?a, the cooperative industries Pateman writes about in  
Yugoslavia, Mitbestimmung in the Federal Republic of Germany, and  
numerous stand-off situations where unions and management had to  
cooperate because neither had a complete upper hand, as is reported  
to have been the case, for example, in some Spanish industries under  
Franco where the (outlawed) Communist/Catholic Worker's Commissions  
were strong enough. These real-life examples of quasi-democratic  
workplaces had "defenders" you'd want to look at, and chronicles of  
these situations may cite interesting theorists.

Third, although this all seems very distant at the start of this  
century, with most everyone accepting of top-down management of the  
workplace, I'm reading a good book just out this year about  
situations in which that approach fails: Ori Brafman and Rod  
Beckstrom, The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of  
Leaderless Organizations (New York: Penguin, 2008). See http:// 
books.google.com/books?id=UnuLGQAACAAJ or http:// 
www.starfishandspider.com/ .

Hope this helps.


Patrick B. Inman