In this episode of All Things Co-op, Kevin chats with Professor and author Elizabeth Anderson about her book Private Government, which pushes back on the myth that a free market means workers are free. Most workplaces function like dictatorships, with their own private governments—employers—calling the shots. Kevin and Professor Anderson discuss these contradictions, the historical American ideal of self-employment, classical philosophers and economists such as John Stuart Mill, contract feudalism, co-determination, and more as they weave through an important conversation about the future of work and workplaces.

About our guest: Elizabeth Anderson is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of The Imperative of Integration (Princeton), Value in Ethics and Economics, and Private Government. Professor Anderson's research covers the interconnected nature of social, political and ethical philosophy including: democratic theory, equality in political philosophy and American law, racial integration, the ethical limits of markets, theories of value and rational choice. She has studied the philosophies of John Stuart Mill and John Dewey, feminist epistemology and philosophy of science.

Private Government by Elizabeth Anderson: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691176512/private-government