Post-Democracy, Co-determination and Industrial Citizenship

The text analyses to what extent the diagnoses of post-democracy (Crouch 2008) can be applied to the field of co-determination in German industrial relations. The main thesis is that co-determination remains stable in formal terms, but is eroding endogenously. Co-determination is organized through democratic procedures; however, a company is not ruled by democracy. For this reason the concept of "industrial citizenship" (T.H. Marshall) is employed to analyze the patterns of democratic participation rights. Using the example of temporary agency work, the changing patterns of industrial citizenship are examined. Afterwards it is shown empirically that the strategic use of temporary agency work and service contracting affects resources and range of co-determination negatively.