Industrial Relations and European State Traditions

by Crouch, Colin

• ISBN13: 9780198279747
• ISBN10: 0198279744
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-09-15
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

In some western European countries trade unions and employers' organizations share responsibility with government for maintaining order and efficiency in the labour market as a matter of course. in others such a role is seen as an unacceptable interference with either the free market or theprerogatives of the state, or both. How can we explain these differences? How enduring are they? Do they matter? In the 1970s there seemed to be a growing popularity for the first approach, leading to the explosion of interest in neo-corporatism; did all that evaporate during the ostensiblyneo-liberal 1980s? Colin Crouch tries to answer these questions with reference to fifteen western European nations. Using a combination of rational choice theory and historical analysis he traces the development of industrial relations systems in these countries from the 1870s to the present. He ends by seekingexplanations for differences further back in time, showing that longer-term historical explanations of contemporary institutions are more necessary than most exercises in policy analysis prefer to accept. 'an outstanding example of the fusion of theoretical economic analysis with historical perspective. Recommended at all levels' Choice 'It is difficult to do justice to this oustanding book in a short review or at a single reading. Colin Crouch's ambitious comparative survey of states and industrial relations provides both an abstract framework for comparative study . . . and a framework for comparing the level and form ofcorporatism in industrial relations.' Political Studies

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xvii
Organized Interests in Economy and Polity	p. 1
Organized Interests in the Economy: Diversity in Western European Experience	p. 3
A Theory of Exchange in Industrial Relations Systems	p. 23
Rational Action, Political Space, and Historical Reality	p. 50
A Century of Institutional Development	p. 65
1870-1914: on the Threshold of Organized Capitalism	p. 67
Organized Industrial Relations Between the Wars	p. 125
The Post-War Years	p. 176
Disorganized Capitalism?	p. 233
An Overview	p. 284
Economic Organizations and Political Space	p. 293
Political Space and European State Traditions: The Religious Base	p. 295
Economic Organizations and Political Space: Historical Legacies	p. 312
Pathways to Twentieth-Century Industrial Politics: The Social-Democratic Cont ribution	p. 333
Appendix: Sources	p. 351
References	p. 363
Index	p. 389
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