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Political Spillovers of Workplace Democracy in Germany

Author

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  • Uwe Jirjahn
  • Thi Xuan Thu Le
Abstract
While works councils provide a highly developed mechanism to promote workplace democracy, research on their consequences has been dominated by economic aspects. This study brings a new perspective to the understanding of works councils by examining their influence on workers’ political behavior. Political spillover theory suggests that participation in the firm’s decision making has the potential to foster workers’ political participation in civic society. Our study for Germany indeed finds a positive association between the presence of a works council and workers’ interest in politics. This holds in panel data estimations including a large set of controls and accounting for unobserved individual-specific factors. However, separate estimations by gender show a positive association between works councils and political interest only for men, but not for women. Traditional gender roles may make it difficult for women to be politically engaged even when a works council is present.

Suggested Citation

  • Uwe Jirjahn & Thi Xuan Thu Le, 2022. "Political Spillovers of Workplace Democracy in Germany," Research Papers in Economics 2022-06, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:trr:wpaper:202206
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    Cited by:

    1. Jirjahn, Uwe & Le, Thi Xuan Thu, 2023. "Works Councils and Workers' Party Preferences in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 15879, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Hoßbach, Christian & Bollwein, Thomas, 2024. "Regionale Gestaltung der Transformation: Ergebnisse einer bundesweiten Online-Befragung und darauf aufbauender themenfokussierter Expert*innen-Interviews," Working Paper Forschungsförderung 352, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    3. Christian Pfeifer, 2023. "Can worker codetermination stabilize democracies? Works councils and satisfaction with democracy in Germany," Working Paper Series in Economics 420, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    4. Uwe Jirjahn, 2024. "Gibt es eine demokratische Dividende betrieblicher Mitbestimmung?," Research Papers in Economics 2024-06, University of Trier, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Works council; works councilor; union member; gender; political interest;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • J52 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Dispute Resolution: Strikes, Arbitration, and Mediation
    • J53 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Labor-Management Relations; Industrial Jurisprudence
    • J58 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Public Policy

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