How works councils increase satisfaction with democracy

Democracy must be actively preserved and protected—this is now more evident than ever. An unconventional approach to improving democratic satisfaction is now presented in a study by an economist from Lüneburg: He has found that employees tend to be more satisfied with the political system if their company has a works council. The study came to this conclusion based on an evaluation of data from the Socio-Economic Panel. The representative survey establishes a correlation between the factors “democratic satisfaction” and “presence of a works council” and calculates that works councils increase employees' democratic satisfaction by an average of 3.5%. The difference is even greater in eastern Germany than in the west. The study considers these findings to be a highly relevant effect; it is estimated that the actual impact is even greater. This works council effect is explained by the fact that positive democratic experiences in everyday working life have a general impact on attitudes toward democracy, thereby improving political satisfaction. The author of the study therefore recommends strengthening co-determination in the workplace in order to strengthen democracy nationwide – especially in areas where political apathy is high and the number of works councils is low.

We were also interested in the following topics:

• Health in everyday working life: One in two employees currently feels less energetic than three years ago, according to a survey by the Pinktum Institute in Hamburg. The exact results and reasons have been summarized by the RND.

• Career: People who work remotely and from home are promoted significantly less often than their colleagues in the office, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. At t3n, Andreas Weck comments on this type of management style with a clear verdict.

• “Fake work”: For employers, too, having their employees work from home has a decisive disadvantage: It is more difficult to track when and how intensively employees are working – and when they are pursuing other activities. This phenomenon, now referred to as “fake work,” is explained by the NZZ.

• AI in the workplace: Not only will everyday working life itself undergo massive changes as a result of artificial intelligence, but income inequality could also worsen, warns a study by the IMF. The reasons for this are explained in the FAZ.

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