The Political Construction of Business Interests

by Martin, Cathie Jo; Swank, Duane

• ISBN13: 9781107018662
• ISBN10: 1107018668
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-03-30
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Many societies use labor market coordination to maximize economic growth and equality, yet employers' willing co-operation with government and labor is something of a mystery. The Political Construction of Corporate Interests recounts employers' struggles to define their collective social identities at turning points in capitalist development. Employers are most likely to support social investments in countries with strong peak business associations, that help members form collective preferences and realize policy goals in labor market negotiations. Politicians, with incentives shaped by governmental structures, took the initiative in association-building and those that created the strongest associations were motivated to evade labor radicalism and to preempt parliamentary democratization. Sweeping in its historical and cross-national reach, the book builds on original archival data, interviews and cross-national quantitative analyses. The research has important implications for the construction of business as a social class and powerful ramifications for equality, welfare state restructuring and social solidarity.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Collective political engagement and the welfare state

The political origins of coordinated capitalism

The political origins of Danish employers' associations

British experiments in national employers' organization

Sectional parties, divided business in the United States

The origins of sector coordination in Germany

Twenty-first century breakdown: challenges to coordination in the post-industrial age

Institutional sources of firms' preferences for the welfare state

Employers, coordination, and active labor market policy in post-industrial Denmark

Employers, coordination, and active labor market policy in post-industrial Britain

The failure of coordination and rise of dualism in Germany

The political foundations of redistribution and equality

Conclusion

Social solidarity after the crisis of finance capitalism

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.