Union democracy (also known as labor democracy) is a school of thought within organized labor which argues that sound unionism requires adherence to principles and practices of democratic trade unionism; that internal democracy and greater membership control make unions stronger and better able to fight for the rights and interests of working people. The goal is to prevent the manifestation of the so-called iron law of oligarchy: that all forms of organization, regardless of how democratic they may be at the start, eventually and inevitably develop into oligarchies with swollen bureaucracies.