I worked for a dictator in the shoe biz...threatened to fire me and a 15-year employee for forgetting to put survey cards in a bag. Goes on every day....

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Americans and the citizens of other putative liberal democracies enjoy the inherent pleasures and beneficial consequences of democracy in only two of their major sets of institutions.

Corporations are not democratic. Educational institutions are not not democratic. Most houses of religious worship are not democratic. Private health care providers are not democratic. Girl Guides and Boy Scout troops are not democratic. Professional sports teams are not democratic. Major charities are seldom democratic. Even Girl Guides and Boy Scouts do not inhabit democratic organizations. And, it goes without saying, psychiatric facilities, prisons, intelligence agencies and the armed forces are not democratic.

Where do we find democracy? Well, I suppose there are still neighbourhood book clubs, associations of stamp and coin collectors and bird-watching societies that fit the bill - to the enduring happiness of their members. These are, however, mostly small, self-selected groups of friends. Once we move to the realm of large, complex organizations, only two candidates seem to meet the minimal standards of democratic "citizenship."

The first are trade unions (in which, of course, I include not only the various members of the AFL-CIO, but also associations of academics, accountants, architects, dentists, doctors, lawyers and others who come together to maintain and, perhaps, improve the conditions under which they do their various jobs - sometimes called "professions").

Yes, I admit that sometimes these groups fail to live up to their democratic obligations, but the good news is that they at least permit robust membership participation, and they usually hold fair and open contests for leadership positions. The bad news is that union membership is small and dwindling, and even professional associations are increasingly impotent as they succumb to the domination of over-reaching corporate influence (e.g., HMOs which rob physicians of their "professional" autonomy).

The other example is representative government. Again, there are problems including (in the United States) de facto restrictions on the right to vote, ample instances of corruption in the electoral system (no doubt to be facilitated by voting machines that lack even the accountability of a "paper trail"), the egregiously anarchronistic Electoral College, and partisan judicial interference as in the case of George W. Bush's first election as president.

The dark conclusion that I draw is that the restriction of formal democracy in large organizations betokens the increasing irrelevance of trade unions and government of, for and by the people in a system that has long since been given over to structures of corporate hegemony.

As for efforts to stimulate happy feelings in the workplace through a host of motivational exercises and electronic Suggestion Boxes, the fact remains that - human relations projects to the contrary notwithstanding - the employer-employee relationship is inherently exploitative and potentially confrontational. The answer is not the more effective distribution of corporate Happy Faces, but authentic social democracy ... which, I am sorry to say, shows little sign of life in today's economic relations of production and distribution.

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I'm not disagreeing there are employer dictarships, certainly I have worked for a few of them. However I think dictatorship is a very VERY strong word and somewhat disingenuous. In MOST true dictatorships people are put against a wall and shot or imprisoned forever, not quite the same as being let go even by the worst sort of boss.

Gotta be careful how we use words like Nazi or dictatorships. Lots of people on Alternet are frequently comparing the U.S.A. to a facist regime. I think they ought to go live in a true facist state or under a dictatorship before they throw comparisons around. I have read other posts on Alternet that believe our country would be better off under a communist gov't, believing that will be kinder to the American worker. I think they need to spend a few years in China.

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If we can stop exporting so many jobs to cheap labor countries who are even more dictatorial than US workplaces and who don't "play fair" on worker and environmental protections, labor unions in the US have a chance of resurgence

Also,although it is a hard claim to win currently in most states the science of work stress is becoming rigorous to the point of allowing for more successful work stress workers comp claims to be filed and won -especially as it relates to cardiovascular disease and depression.

This will help ease workplace dictatorships- but not soon enough.

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton,Pa

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Be it men vs women, black vs white vs latino vs etc..., christian vs muslim vs etc ..., liberal vs conservative, etc ... the inabilities of the working class to unite makes dictatorships in businesses and nations way too easy.

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Those companies are worker-owned cooperatives. In Worker Coops, everyone who works there gets the chance to own a piece of the business, participate in decision making and share the profits and risks of business, rather than working for a faceless corporation or a dictatorial boss. Worker coops can be a tool to combat poverty; usually worker coops pay better and/or have better benefits than traditional businesses, because the owners are the workers and they are not slaving to pay dividends to shareholders who may have never stepped inside the business. I am a worker-owner in one of these businesses, and I have never been more engaged, excited, and enthusiastic about my work as when I am invested in the outcome. I make a reasonable living, have great benefits, and I get to help steer what my company does. Check out the US Federation of Worker Coops and then opt out of the corporate system and start your own business. Let the profits from your business enrich your life and your community.

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By cheap goods. Therefore, we buy from huge companies like Walmart instead of independently owned businesses. While this does not guarantee democracy in the work place working for yourself or a small employeer increases your chances. We need to change norms to stop admiring the one who has the most stuff or the newest stuff and focus it on who makes the most socially responsible consumer choices.

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I have no loyalty to independently owned businesses. They are as parasitic as much as any larger chain. At least at the big box stores they have a generous return policy,I tried to take a shirt back to a mom and pop clothing store with a defect and they would not exchange it.It is not up too me too support any body.through my patronage.
.

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It is odd, isn't it, that here in the country that boasts loudest about "freedom" and "democracy", most of us spend most of our waking lives in openly, proudly, vigorously undemocratic organizations. At work we willingly surrender self-agency to "the boss". We learn quickly whose behind to smooch and how to keep our heads down and work (or pretend to). We think nothing of surrendering authority over our time, energy and ideas in exchange for a paycheck. OK, maybe we have to. We've got bills to pay. I get that, but shouldn't we be a bit more circumspect about lecturing, browbeating and bombing the world into line with our point of view, given our state of servitude?

Of course, I guess in a society where yapping about freedom is more important than being free, what else can I expect?

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Just like in the church, military and almost all corporations is a dictatorship. One constructed and promulgated by psychopaths by and large. It is rare indeed to find one that isn't these days. Workers are wall-to-wall looking for any work. The squeeking wheel gets replaced not listened to. Just what they want. Gilded Age redux.

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but at least my job gives me a check every week.

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The answer to this problem is a strong union with collective bargaining rights. Without unions what you get IS dicatatorship you idiot. Where have you been for the last 50 years?????

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Remember we're talking about the owning class here, the most spoiled, arrogant, sociopaths known to humanity. As a group they lack the ability to empathize and cooperate with other human beings. Consider Ralphs grocery stores... in a recent survey their corporate higherups (owning class VPs) learned that customers were unhappy with their stores. They ignored why (12 checkout lanes with only 1 or 2 of them open at any given time day or night, causing frustrating line waits of up to 1-2 hours in length - surprise 'Merkaans don't like the Soviet style queue thing) and quickly ordered the baggers lowest on the totem pole to become WalMart style door greeters handing out their circulars (with no coupons). A sensible operation with sensible folk would have recognized the problem identified in the data and addressed the actual problem (gee, maybe we don't need 100 billion in profit and pissed off clientele, we could still make 99 billion in profit and hire 3-8 more checkers during peak hours). But see these are the owning class... human skinbags without souls or brains, just lots and lots of money.

behind every rich guy there's a crime....

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death of the United States yet." I suspect that hired management and absentee ownership will complete the job. My experience in the corporate world was that they just covered their inefficiency with increased prices. The idea that government is more inefficient is a popular capitalist myth. Most of the inefficiency in government happens when the capitalist steals from the government.

Its my observation that Renault improved when the French government became involved. Seventy percent of the oil produced in the world is done by government owned oil companies. The United States is the odd man out. Again.

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Or has Alternet taken to posting pitches now?

This is an interesting little summary of a potential article, but how about telling us what these poll results might mean?

A few examples would be nice. Jumping from this workplace opinion poll to the prevalence of dictatorships (without bothering to define either "dictatorship" or "democracy") is a total non sequitur.

Indeed, there is a lesson to be learned here: Finish writing the article before you publish it.

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they call it micro-management. no unions. even the workers have been propagandized to believe that unions are bad! It's a plantation mentality to be sure. Louisiana and Mississippi are so backwards, it will take considerable effort for the other 48 states to catch "up".............

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Just look at China. Peaceful progress. Tito kept the Serbs in check. Duvalier kept Haiti peaceful.

Not every culture & people can handle democracy.

We should be grateful for their sneakers, iPods, and clothes. Oppression can be freedom. For both sides.......

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