Economic Democracy for the Voiceless

In this article, I argue that instituting a form of economic democracy (ED) may offer a partial remedy to the ongoing ecological crisis. My argument proceeds in three steps. First, I contend that the ecological crisis largely stems from an under-responsiveness of current political and economic institutions to the interests of voiceless beings—in particular, future generations and non-human beings. Second, I draw on theoretical and empirical considerations, such as ED’s deliberative structure and adverse optimization pressures under capitalism, to argue that ED is likely to be more responsive to voiceless interests than capitalism. Furthermore, ED is also more amenable to responsiveness-increasing reforms that directly represent voiceless interests in economic decision-making processes. Third, I explore whether this gives us reasons to subscribe to some forms of ED over others. Models of ED with a broad scope of democratic decision-making and an inclusive demos, I argue, are best suited to protecting the voiceless. Overall, the article provides some pro tanto reasons favoring ED based on its relative responsiveness to voiceless interests. This supplements common defenses of ED that appeal to non-domination, meaningful work, and the firm-state analogy.