Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

MS Word

Justin Schwartz

Public Law and Legal Theory

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Voice Without Say: Why More Capitalist Firms Are Not (Genuinely) Participatory, Justin Schwartz Aug 2011

Voice Without Say: Why More Capitalist Firms Are Not (Genuinely) Participatory, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Why are most capitalist enterprises of any size organized as authoritarian bureaucracies rather than incorporating genuinely employee participation that would give the workers real authority? Even firms with employee participation programs leave virtually all decision making power in the hands of management. The standard answer is that hierarchy is more economically efficient than any sort of genuine participation, so that participatory firms would be less productive or efficient and lose out to more traditional competitors. This answer is indefensible. After surveying the history, legal status, and varieties of employee participation, I examine and reject as question-begging the argument that the …


It Ain’T Necessarily So: The Misuse Of “Human Nature” In Law And Social Policy And The Bankruptcy Of The “Nature-Nuture” Debate, Justin Schwartz Jul 2011

It Ain’T Necessarily So: The Misuse Of “Human Nature” In Law And Social Policy And The Bankruptcy Of The “Nature-Nuture” Debate, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Debate about legal and policy reform has been haunted by a pernicious confusion about human nature, the idea that it is a set of rigid dispositions, today generally conceived as genetic, that is manifested the same way in all circumstances. Opponents of egalitarian alternatives argue that we cannot depart far from the status quo because human nature stands in the way. Advocates of such reforms too often deny the existence of human nature because, sharing this conception, they think it would prevent changes they deem desirable. Both views rest on deep errors about what it is to have a nature …