A working sovereign

At the centre of interest for Axel Honneth, former director of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, who currently works at Goethe University in Frankfurt and Columbia University in New York, is the question of what influence the arrangement of labour relations has on the functioning of a democratic society. In his examination of the connection between democracy and the social division of labour, he shows that participation in democratic will-formation is tied to the condition of a transparently and fairly regulated division of labour. He does not limit himself to a historical excursion and an analysis of the current situation but also outlines the areas in which contemporary labour policy should intervene to contribute to the revitalisation of democratic participation.