Economic Democracy: Participation, Sovereignty, and Control in North American History

Economic democracy is a broad concept with variable and, sometimes, competing definitions . Is economic democracy mass participation in the economy through work, and consumption? Is economic democracy the broad sharing and distribution of economic prosperity? Is economic democracy a set of procedures allowing for both ownership and control of property? Is economic democracy nothing more and nothing less than the protection of individual property rights? The unfixed meaning of economic democracy has allowed for different groups and individuals to lay claim to the term while also allowing historians a valuable lens through which to understand how those same groups and individuals navigated their place in the economy. Periods of disruption and turbulence on a social and individual scale provide opportunities for exploration of the principle of economic democracy and how it has been contested and exercised throughout history. The three papers in this panel each examine a different time and collection of actors as they sought to give meaning to the notion of economic democracy through individual entrepreneurship and collective action. Amanda Gibson examines the life of Elizabeth Keckly to highlight the role of race and social connections in access to finance. Misty Peñuelas examines how the Cherokee Nation modeled the necessity of fiscal-monetary sovereignty for development of a liberal state in advance of international counterparts. Finally, Brian Sarginger uses the 1970 GM shareholder meeting to show a turning point in shareholder activism in the United States. Taken together, these papers shed light on the expansiveness of economic democracy, highlighting commonalities and differences in the ways different groups of people conceived and enacted economic democracy over time.