In Part 2 of my conversation with Osita Nwanevu (Part 1 here), we talked about part of his new book, The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding, that I especially value. It covers something too often missing from our public debates: the connection between political democracy and economic democracy.
We usually think of democracy in the narrow terms of voting in elections every few years. But that leaves out a huge part of our lives: the workplace. For most of us, decisions made by corporate executives shape our daily existence more than anything passed in Congress. And yet, in the economy, we’re expected to live under authoritarian rule.
That’s why unions matter—not only for wages and working conditions, but as living embodiments of democracy. In unions, workers elect representatives, negotiate contracts, and learn the arts of compromise, argument, and collective decision-making. It’s where democracy is practiced every day, and where people experience what it means to have agency. Without that, alienation grows—and so does the appeal of authoritarian alternatives.
Earlier generations spoke easily of “economic democracy” or “industrial liberty,” and understood that unchecked corporate power threatened self-government. We’ve lost that language. Reclaiming it means seeing unions not just as an economic tool, but as a cornerstone of democratic life.
