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