Overview

Examines questions such as what explains the enormous variation in unionization and why has the period from the mid-1980s been so hostile to organized labour? The text analyzes labour union organization in 18 capitalist democracies from 1950 to 1990. It combines insights from sociology and economics, viewing unions as the joint product of market forces and political and economic institutions. The book argues that three institutional conditions are essential for union growth: strong working-class political parties; centralized collective bargaining; and union-run unemployment insurance. These conditions shaped the market currents and explain variations across industries, across countries and over time.

Full Product Details

9780691010335

Table of Contents

Reviews

The author uses a blend of sociological analysis of institutions and econometric analysis of labor markets to provide a complex yet insightful analysis of the rise and fall of unions in eighteen countries during the post-World War II period. This analysis will appeal to serious students of the labor market from both disciplines. Choice Western gives union growth and decline in the democratic capitalist core as close to a definitive treatment as such a large topic is ever likely to receive. His account is both remarkably rigorous in its use of evidence and lucid in its telling. Sociologists of the economy and comparative political economists (of whatever academic affiliation) will need to study, teach, and draw inspiration from this book. -- Alex Hicks Journal of Politics

The author uses a blend of sociological analysis of institutions and econometric analysis of labor markets to provide a complex yet insightful analysis of the rise and fall of unions in eighteen countries during the post-World War II period. This analysis will appeal to serious students of the labor market from both disciplines. -- Choice Western gives union growth and decline in the democratic capitalist core as close to a definitive treatment as such a large topic is ever likely to receive. His account is both remarkably rigorous in its use of evidence and lucid in its telling. Sociologists of the economy and comparative political economists (of whatever academic affiliation) will need to study, teach, and draw inspiration from this book. -- Alex Hicks, Journal of Politics

Author Information

Bruce Western is Assistant Professor of Sociology and a faculty associate of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University.

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