(p.116) When it comes to civic skills, voluntary associations are not the only means to increase political participation. Verba et al. (1995) claim that civic skills can also be developed at the workplace. In the 1970s, several participatory democrats such as Carole Pateman even pointed to democratic workplaces as the starting point for a more participatory political democracy at large. Both of these approaches have been supported empirically. However, I argue that appropriate data have been lacking in previous research, and when I use more adequate data no support is found.

(p.957) If a causal link can be established in which voice practices in the workplace positively influence participation in civil society, then this could be seen as a positive outward democratic spillover. Understanding this spillover can help inform public policy on employee participation (Budd and Zagelmeyer 2010) and contribute toward understanding the ways in which a society can encourage more active political participation among its citizenry. Indeed, the most optimistic of the existing scholarship implies that this spillover may hold the key to shaping democratic societies (Greenberg 1986). Moreover, evaluations of organizational management practices are typically directed inward, largely focusing on...

(p.979) Using a sample of more than 14,000 European workers, we find that employees with greater levels of individual autonomy and voice at work are indeed significantly more likely to engage in a broad array of prodemocratic behaviors. This relationship appears just as strong as the commonly accepted relationship between trade unions and political participation, and appears to be a distinct relationship apart from this collective voice sphere.

(p.317) Being in work is associated with a number of resources—in particular, civic skills and politically relevant networks—that foster interest and participation. By implication, being out of work deprives workers of these resources.

(p.326) Our study has important policy implications. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called youth unemployment “the most pressing problem facing Europe at the present time.” Although she was mostly referring to the well documented material and psychological repercussions of youth unemployment, such experiences, as we have shown, can also lower political involvement. This means that those who need public policies most are the least likely to make their voices heard. This finding reinforces arguments that fighting youth unemployment should be a top priority for policy makers—even in times of tight budgets.

(p.1) It is somewhat surprising that recognition theorists have not yet provided detailed arguments for workplace democracy. We cannot, of course, offer an exact explanation for other theorists’ choices, but one potential reason for this could be that they, like Jütten, do not see workplace democracy as necessary for dignified life. A second potential reason is that the focus of the central theorists has been elsewhere. Axel Honneth has a very general and historical social theory, which understands modern society as a functional whole with differentiated institutional spheres. In this picture, democracy resides mostly in the politics of the public sphere...

(p.347) Do unemployed and employed youth display different levels of social capital and political participation? Does social capital favors the political participation of unemployed and employed youth? Is social capital more important for unemployed youth than for employed youth? Perhaps quite surprisingly, especially in the light of works that have stressed the obstacles faced by unemployed to engage politically (Bagguley 1991, 1992; Chabanet 2008; Chabanet and Faniel 2011; Faniel 2004; Royall 1997), we found, to begin with, that the employment status does not have a strong impact on the political participation of youth. More specifically, long-term unemployed youth in Switzerland are...