This study reviews the concepts and experiences that have marked employees" participation in the firm, within capitalist economies, over the last century. The author"s reconstruction employs a comparative approach embracing the principal European countries, the United States and Japan. His aim is to evaluate the phenomenon free from ideological constraints, with an eye to solutions that are realistically viable in a market economy. According to Baglioni, the political democracy method is not applicable to production relations, given the impossibility to replicate, in the firm and in the emplyment relationship, the special rules that denote political representation and competition. In capitalist societies viable forms are both negotiated and compatible with the firm"s requirements in terms of efficiency and competitiveness.