Why is union democracy important? For four key reasons. First, unions have always identified their role, at least in part, as instruments for a more democratic order in industry and society. But how can they act as a channel of industrial democracy if they are not themselves democratic? Second, unions; legitimacy as social actors rests in large measure on their claims to representativeness; but without internal democracy, such claims are tendentious. Third, unions are vehicles of solidarity, calling on their members and supporters to identify with broader class interests rather than merely pursuing short-term individual or parochial advantage. And fourth, unions require not just their members’ ‘willingness to pay’ but also their ‘willingness to act’ (Offe and Wiesenthal 1985), and this they are far more likely to demonstrate if they see themselves as having helped shaped the union’s programme.

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