Private Government

Why our workplaces are authoritarian private governmentsΓÇöand why we canΓÇÖt see it
One in four American workers says their workplace is a ΓÇ£dictatorship.ΓÇ¥ Yet that number almost certainly would be higher if we recognized employers for what they areΓÇöprivate governments with sweeping authoritarian power over our lives. Many employers minutely regulate workersΓÇÖ speech, clothing, and manners on the job, and employers often extend their authority to the off-duty lives of workers, who can be fired for their political speech, recreational activities, diet, and almost anything else employers care to govern. In this compelling book, Elizabeth Anderson examines why, despite all this, we continue to talk as if free markets make workers free, and she proposes a better way to think about the workplace, opening up space for discovering how workers can enjoy real freedom.