© Jesper Ahlin Marceta 2024
The conflicting interests of employers and employees are central to political theory and practice. In her book Private Government, philosopher Elizabeth Anderson argues that firms—literally—are private governments. Bosses in firms govern workers. Employees are subjected to arbitrary dominance, which negatively affects their freedom. Regardless of whether one agrees with this description, the underlying analysis should be recognized as valid. According to Anderson, the ideal of a free market society used to be left-wing. Egalitarians in the 17th through 19th centuries pictured a world of self-employed individuals, or individuals in small family-owned businesses, as an alternative to monopolies run by states,…