Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

Enterprise Obstructions to Democracy 239democracy or, more precisely, about undemocracy, eventhough its implications are often more timidly than bravelystudied. The transformation of corporation into citizen canhardly be dismissed as insignificant on the ground that enterprisesare, after all, composed of individual persons. Theeffect of granting the enterprise a citizen’s rights in additionto the rights already enjoyed by participants in the enterpriseis to confer great special powers on groups of enterpriseexecutives, who can make use of corporate assets andpersonnel in addition to exercising the rights and powersthey enjoy as individual citizens.Other than by redefining democracy, I do not see how itis possible to reconcile democracy with the practice of conferringon institutions the rights and powers of real persons.The rationale for democracy is rights and powers for living,hurting, and aspiring persons whose assigned rights andpowers give them protection as well as opportunities topursue their aspirations. It would make no sense, on democraticgrounds, to assign such rights and powers to fire hydrantsor computers—they neither suffer nor aspire. Neitherdoes a corporation suffer or aspire. Only the people init do. To them alone would a democratic state assign therights and powers of persons.For the performance of the functions that societies assignto corporations—to organize air transport, for example,or extract ore—corporations need certain rights andpowers such as to buy and sell and to manage a workforce. Isee no necessary obstacle to democracy when corporationshold those rights and powers. The obstruction of democracyarises only when the additional rights and powers of freepersons are granted to corporations. Every society minimallyrecognizes such a principle—I do not know of any societythat permits, say, a corporation to run for and hold po-