Overview

An urgent critique of the market-fundamentalist ideals undermining democratic politics, pointing the way to principled reforms. Democracy has been hollowed out by capitalism. A narrow view of markets and their aims-prioritizing efficiency, profit, and growth-now dominates thinking about democracy itself. Citizens are ignorant of the deep principles of self-governance, having long since adopted a facile equation between democracy and voting as a consumer choice. Lisa Herzog argues that democracy is still possible, but only if democratic values get embedded in everyday experience-including economic experience. That requires new ways of thinking about markets and their goals. The Democratic Marketplace theorizes the foundational structures of a democratic economy, in which markets are not just tools for maximizing profit via exploitation and extraction. To this end, employees are empowered to participate in corporate governance. Economic disparities are curbed so that citizens can negotiate their inevitable differences on a truly equal footing. And while a democratic economy need not eschew growth, it does renounce today's growth-at-all-costs expectations, instead balancing growth with goals like ecological sustainability and the preservation of time outside of work. Democratic economics also entails implementing reforms in ways that take seriously the perspectives, experiences, and skills of the whole population. These are not utopian dreams, Herzog contends. The proposals that follow from the theory of democratic economics are already being tested around the world. And the shift in social norms that they necessitate is already underway.

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Reviews

Starting from the premise that our unequal economy is a great threat to democracy, The Democratic Marketplace invites us to imagine an economic system that pursues not only efficiency but also the dignity and full participation of its members. Lisa Herzog makes a compelling case that the needed changes will come through a ‘moral revolution’ of sorts—a transformation in the narratives of how and for whom the economy works. -- Dani Rodrik, Harvard Kennedy School Lisa Herzog’s urgent and compelling book calls for no less than a democratic redirection of human energies away from GDP growth and toward creating conditions for human flourishing: egalitarian, sustainable societies in which participatory workplace practices play a pivotal role. While this is a tall order, Herzog offers a nuanced, care-filled account in which time for dialogue and civic participation matters deeply. This lucid, well-written work is poised to guide policy shifts in the service of social justice. -- Adelle Blackett, McGill Faculty of Law Lisa Herzog enlarges our understanding of the role of the economy as not only a vehicle for efficiently delivering goods and services but also a site of soul shaping. Drawing on both philosophy and social science, The Democratic Marketplace presents a timely and cogent argument that the organization of the workplace has implications for sustainable growth, the distribution of free time, and the institutions of democracy itself. This is an important book with a humane and hopeful message that should be of interest to a wide audience. -- Debra Satz, Stanford University Unequal greedy competitors cannot make good democratic citizens. For democracy to flourish in the twenty-first century, the historical march toward equality must pursue its course. A great book and a must-read! -- Thomas Piketty, L’ École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and the Paris School of Economics

Author Information

Lisa Herzog is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Groningen and the author of Citizen Knowledge: Markets, Experts, and the Infrastructure of Democracy.

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