Towards Organizational Democracy? Convergence and Divergence in Models of Economic and Political Governance

Abstract

International audience ; This study on organizational change begins with the idea that globalization and the development of the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) have favoured the structural convergence of organizations, resulting in the hegemonic dominance of business values and practices in virtually all types of organizations, notably political parties and public or semi-public organizations. So far, very few scholars have tried to make this convergence between business organization paradigms and those present in other types of organizations, notably political parties, semi-public bodies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), explicit, with the notable exception of Max Weber, who pointed out in his 1925 book Economy and Society the continuities of structure and practice deriving from the bureaucratic form present within all large-scale organizations (Weber, 1978), and Robert Michels, who highlighted in 1911, through his theory of the 'Iron law of oligarchy', the process of bureaucratization of political parties (Michels, 1915).