Democratic Justice Regimes in Work Organizations: The Case of Israeli Taxi Cooperatives

Abstract

This article argues that democratic institutions for conflict resolution such as an independent judicial process are an important extension of workplace democracy. Using a survey of all taxi stations in Haifa, Israel, this study tries to describe and explain the existence of democratic justice regimes in work organizations. The study finds that all the worker-owned taxi stations studied elect both managers to run the stations and judges to operate an internal court. Most worker-owned stations institute a separation of the executive and the judicial branches. The study also finds a positive relationship between having a majority of hired drivers in worker-owned stations and having democratic governance structures, including an independent judiciary. This finding poses a challenge to existing literature that portrays a growing percentage of hired labour in cooperatives as a sign of 'degeneration'of democratic values. Finally, a positive relationship is found between ethnic succession among members in taxi cooperatives and the existence of democratic justice regimes.