The workplace and the democratic common sense: the spillover effect and its reverse

Abstract

The "spillover" effect of workplace participation into public life (Pateman, 1970) has given rise to new, predominantly empirical research, devoid of significant results, distorting fundamental normative elements without considering the evolution of the historical and institutional context of the job. An explored reinterpretation of the reverse effect can reveal how the transformations of large companies since the 1970s, driven by the neoliberal counteroffensive, have undermined the democratic participation of workers. Pateman's work is part of a period of exhaustion of post-war capitalism in the heat of the protests of the 60s and 70s. The vertical disintegration and financialization of the capitalist enterprise has subsequently altered the original context of Pateman's proposal, acquiring a vigorous excluding role of popular participation and an unparalleled machinery of siege to the public interest.