The widespread contemporary concern in liberal democracies about declining citizen participation in
political activities has generated considerable interest in a wide range of institutional innovations
aimed at encouraging political participation. Yet there has been surprisingly little discussion of
workplace democracy, or worker co-operatives, even though historically there has been
considerable optimism about the capacity of worker co-operatives to invoke change, not just in the
workplace and the individual worker, but also in the wider polity and economy. The neglect of this
subject is particularly puzzling given that several of the leading proponents of participatory
democracy have specifically emphasised the importance of democratising the workplace. In
particular, Carole Pateman (1970) developed the 'spillover thesis', which claims that participation in
workplace decision-making increases the probability of participation in wider politics outside the
workplace. Indeed, Mason (Mason 1982: 78) has argued that the similarity between the workplace
and government experience in terms of the mode, intensity and quality of participation suggests that
the most efficient and effective way of increasing participation in government is to increase
participation in the workplace. In the light of contemporary concern about political participation, the
spillover thesis and the arguments underpinning it merit reassessment.