---
title: Economic Democracy
---

The extension of democratic principles into economic institutions — ownership structures, corporate governance, and the distribution of economic power — rather than limiting democracy to political institutions alone.

Distinct from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): CSR asks corporations to behave well within their existing governance structure; economic democracy asks whether that structure itself should be democratic.

The main forms in practice are cooperatives (worker-owned, consumer-owned, or multi-stakeholder), mutuals, and employee ownership trusts.

Presented at a [2020 Designing Open Democracy podcast](../blog/posts/2020-06-20-podcast.md) by Antony McMullen of [Co-operative Bonds](../organisations/cooperative-bonds.md), in the context of the Australian banking royal commission. Revisited in the [2022 Basil's Table panel](../blog/posts/2023-01-21-podcast.md), which connected cooperative ownership to housing, post-growth foresight, and the "billionaire problem."

## Further reading

- [Co-operative Bonds](https://bonds.coop) — Antony McMullen's consultancy
- [Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals](https://bccm.coop/)
- [Economic democracy — Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_democracy)


## See also

- [Worker Cooperatives](worker-cooperatives.md)
- [Cooperative](cooperative.md)
- [Workplace Democracy](workplace-democracy.md)
- [888 Co-operative Causeway](../organisations/888-cooperative-causeway.md)
- [Earthworker Cooperative](../organisations/earthworker-cooperative.md)
- [bHive](../organisations/bhive.md)
