Experiences of controlled liberation Reflections on a new attempt at democracy in the company

Abstract

The phenomenon known as “corporate liberation” would testify to yet another desire to democratize companies, as part of two more general movements: one of liberalization, the other of the evolution of democracy toward more subtle forms of exercising power, leading to a particular conception of autonomy and law in many “liberated companies.” The new ways of managing, by fine-tuning the free will of the employees, of which these new types of companies would be the laboratory, would characterize an emerging form of democracy called “post-democracy,” in which individuals are free in their actions only within the limits authorized by the leaders