scholarly journals Democracy in America at work: the history of labor’s vote in corporate governance

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan McGaughey
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Listed Company ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
Economic Democracy ◽  
Employee Representation ◽  
American Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Democracy In America ◽  
Asset Managers

Can there be democracy in America at work? The historical division between democracy in politics and hierarchy in the economy is under strain. Hierarchical interests in the economy are shifting their model of power into politics, and yet a commitment to revive the law is resurgent. Central examples are the proposed Accountable Capitalism Act, Reward Work Act, Workplace Democracy Acts, and Employees’ Pension Security Acts. They would create a right for employees to elect 40% of directors on $1 billion company boards, a right for employees to elect one-third of directors on other listed company boards, and require one-half employee representation on single-employer pension plans. All challenge long held myths: that labor’s involvement in corporate governance is foreign to American tradition, that when codified in law labor voice is economically inefficient, that the legitimate way to have voice in the economy is by buying stocks, or that labor voice faces insurmountable legal obstacles. This article shows these myths are mistaken by exploring the history and evidence from 1861. The United States has one of the world’s strongest traditions of democracy at work. Economic democracy has not been more widespread primarily because it was suppressed by law. Americans favor voice at work, while asset managers who monopolize shareholder votes with ‘other people’s money’ enjoy no legitimacy at all. The article concludes that, even without federal government, and by recreating themselves as laboratories of democracy and enterprise, states can adapt the current proposals and rebuild a living law. (2019) 42 Seattle University Law Review 697.

scholarly journals A draft Economic Democracy Directive for the European Union

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan McGaughey
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Life Insurance ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Economic Democracy ◽  
Pay Gap ◽  
Fair Wages ◽  
The City ◽  
Asset Managers

The chasm between our political democracy and our economic absolutism is the single most important issue of our time. Today, in the European Union, a tiny group of asset managers and banks control most of the votes in the economy. They control shares in corporations, which control our workplaces, our pay, our security in retirement and our environment.These asset managers and banks oppose trade unions and fair wages. They support escalating pay for billionaire CEOs. They oppose action to stop discrimination at work and the gender pay gap. They oppose meaningful action to end climate damage. They are tearing our society and our planet apart.The voting power asset managers and banks control comes from other people’s money. It doesn’t belong to them. It belongs to us. It comes from Europeans saving for retirement, in pension plans, in life insurance, or mutual funds. But the share of workers’ capital in the stock market has been shrinking since the 1980s. Inequality has skyrocketed as workplace democracy and collective bargaining have been attacked. This has meant a declining share of income for labour, and growing share for the City, Frankfurt, La Défense or Milan.This is why we need a new Economic Democracy Plan for Europe. This paper contains a draft Economic Democracy Directive for the European Union that would democratise the economy, through votes at work, in capital, in public services, and secure public control of enterprises that drive climate damage.

Confession

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick W. Carey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
American Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
American Catholic

Confession is a history of penance as a virtue and a sacrament in the United States from about 1634, the origin of Catholicism in Maryland, to 2015, fifty years after the major theological and disciplinary changes initiated by the Second Vatican Council (1962–65). The history of the Catholic theology and practice of penance is analyzed within the larger context of American Protestant penitential theology and discipline and in connection with divergent interpretations of biblical penitential language (sin, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation) that Jews, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, and Catholics shared in the American body politic. The overall argument of the text is that the Catholic theology and practice of penance, so much opposed by the inheritors of the Protestant Reformation, kept alive the biblical penitential language in the United States at least until the mid 1960s when Catholic penitential discipline changed and the practice of sacramental confession declined precipitously. Those changes within the American Catholic tradition contributed to the more general eclipse of penitential language in American society as a whole. From the 1960s onward penitential language was overshadowed increasingly by the language of conflict and controversy. In the current climate of controversy and conflict, such a text may help Americans understand how much their society has departed from the penitential language of the earlier American tradition and consider what the advantages and disadvantages of such a departure are.

Outrageous Flirtation, Repressed Flirtation, and the Gallic Singularity

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-90
Author(s):  
Jean Elisabeth Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
American Women ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Democracy In America ◽  
Changing Attitudes ◽  
Gender System

This article offers a new way of understanding Alexis de Tocqueville’s complex position as a French observer who studied the United States, an ambivalent aristocratic cultural commentator who put his hopes for the future in democratic society, and a paradoxical figure in the history of debates over the so-called “Gallic singularity” who ultimately argued that the new American sex/gender system could provide a better model for women in a democracy than the traditional French one. The introduction and first section highlight Tocqueville’s changing attitudes toward what he saw as the key contrasts between European marriages and American marriages by comparing his initial letters home from the United States with his eventual work in Democracy in America. The second section compares his views of French and American women with those of his contemporaries Germaine de Staël and Gustave de Beaumont. The third section explains his changing views by establishing the connections between his comparative arguments about women and marriage and his comparative arguments about democracy itself.

Spirituals, Freedom Songs, and Lieux de Mémoire: African-American Music and the Routes of Memory

Prospects ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 213-230
Author(s):  
Peter J. Ling
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Music ◽  
National Consciousness ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
African American Music ◽  
American Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Freedom Songs

In countries where the history has not assumed the same didactic role in forming the national consciousness, the history of history need not burden itself with such polemical content. For example, in the United States, a country of plural memories and diverse traditions, historiographical reflection has long been part of the discipline. Different interpretations of the American Revolution or the Civil War may involve high stakes but do not threaten to undermine the American tradition because, in a sense, there is no such thing, or if there is, it is not primarily a historical construct. In France, by contrast, historiography is iconoclastic and irreverent.

Determinants of the generosity of pension plans for public school teachers, 1982–2006

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT L. CLARK ◽  
LEE A. CRAIG
Keyword(s):  
Public School ◽  
School Teacher ◽  
Pension Plan ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
Retirement Plans ◽  
Teacher Retirement ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Employees ◽  
The Impact

AbstractAll states provide pension plans to their teachers and civil servants; however, these plans vary across the states. We present a history of the development of teacher retirement plans during the twentieth century, describe how teacher plans relate to retirement plans for other state employees, and assess the impact of teachers not being included in Social Security on the benefits they receive from their employer pension plan. Over the past 25 years, public school teacher retirement plans in the United States have increased in generosity as benefit formulas have been increased, salary averaging periods have been reduced, and the normal retirement age has been lowered. We employ data from retirement plans in the states to estimate the impact of social and economic factors on the replacement rates for teachers retiring with 30 years of service.

Special Considerations for Evaluation and Treatment of Spanish-Speaking Patients with Cleft Palate

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 41-49
Author(s):  
Ellen Moore
Keyword(s):  
Cleft Palate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Culturally Competent ◽  
Speech Language Pathology ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Appropriate Treatment ◽  
Oral Pressure ◽  
Language Pathology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spanish Speaking Population

As the Spanish-speaking population in the United States continues to grow, there is increasing need for culturally competent and linguistically appropriate treatment across the field of speech-language pathology. This paper reviews information relevant to the evaluation and treatment of Spanish-speaking and Spanish-English bilingual children with a history of cleft palate. The phonetics and phonology of Spanish are reviewed and contrasted with English, with a focus on oral pressure consonants. Cultural factors and bilingualism are discussed briefly. Finally, practical strategies for evaluation and treatment are presented. Information is presented for monolingual and bilingual speech-language pathologists, both in the community and on cleft palate teams.

State-by-State Use of AMA Guides

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 3-7, 16
Keyword(s):  
Expert Testimony ◽  
Narrow Range ◽  
The United States ◽  
Workers Compensation ◽  
Federal Employees ◽  
Permanent Disability ◽  
Sixth Edition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Canadian Provinces

Abstract This article presents a history of the origins and development of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides), from the publication of an article titled “A Guide to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment of the Extremities and Back” (1958) until a compendium of thirteen guides was published in book form in 1971. The most recent, sixth edition, appeared in 2008. Over time, the AMA Guides has been widely used by US states for workers’ compensation and also by the Federal Employees Compensation Act, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, as well as by Canadian provinces and other jurisdictions around the world. In the United States, almost twenty states have developed some form of their own impairment rating system, but some have a narrow range and scope and advise evaluators to consult the AMA Guides for a final determination of permanent disability. An evaluator's impairment evaluation report should clearly document the rater's review of prior medical and treatment records, clinical evaluation, analysis of the findings, and a discussion of how the final impairment rating was calculated. The resulting report is the rating physician's expert testimony to help adjudicate the claim. A table shows the edition of the AMA Guides used in each state and the enabling statute/code, with comments.

Review of A brief history of the United States.

1919 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 414-414
Author(s):  
No authorship indicated
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of
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