Employee ownership has ideological cachet in all advanced industrialized democracies.
For many, the principle of self-governance that underlies political democracy extends to the
economic sphere. In this view, all institutions essential to the basic structure of society must be
consistent with the norms of moral equality and autonomy. Since corporations allocate income
in a market society, and thereby distribute the resources by which individuals pursue their
various notions of the good life, corporate structures are a part of the basic structure of society.1
Accordingly, corporate decision-making and/or income allocations should be governed by the
same fundamental principles that are the object of consensus in the political sphere.2
For others, employee ownership has primarily instrumental value. Employee ownership
may help cultivate the virtues of independence and self-respect, and may foster broader
economic understanding; these in turn may enable citizens to exercise their political rights more
wisely.3 In this view, the foundations of a republic are more secure when citizens own the means
of their livelihood. Another instrumental view of employee ownership is perfectionist, in that the
virtues attendant to employee ownership are deemed inherently good and worth promoting.4
Finally, in the utilitarian view, employee ownership benefits the general economy by promoting
worker productivity5, or at least the welfare of employees, who are expected to enjoy a greater
proportion of firm profits when they are co-owners.6