A01=Bruce Western
Author_Bruce Western
Bayesian
Business cycle
Capitalism
Category=JBSL
Category=JHBL
Category=KNXU
Coefficient
Collective action
Collective agreement
Collective bargaining
Communism
Comparative research
Corporatism
Decentralization
Democracy
Deregulation
Dummy variable (statistics)
Economic forces
Economic growth
Economics
Employment
Employment agency
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Estimation
European University Institute
Gender pay gap
Ghent system
Government
Hot Autumn
Industrial action
Industrial relations
Industrial unionism
Institution
Insurance
Labor relations
Labour law
Labour movement
Left Party (Sweden)
Legislation
Linear regression
Local union
Market (economics)
Market power
National Labor Relations Act
New institutionalism
Pattern bargaining
Percentage
Percentage point
Political party
Politics
Princeton University
Prior probability
Private sector
Recession
Regression analysis
Social democracy
Statistic
Strike action
Subsidy
Time series
Trade union
Unemployment
Unemployment benefits
Union density
Union Movement
Union wage premium
Wage
Welfare
Welfare state
Work council
Workforce
Working class
World War II
Year
Product details
- ISBN 9780691010335
- Weight: 369g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 08 Aug 1999
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
In the United States, less than one worker in five is currently in a labor union, while in Sweden, virtually the entire workforce is unionized. Despite compelling evidence for their positive effects, even the strongest European unions are now in retreat as some policymakers herald the U.S. model of market deregulation. These differences in union power significantly affect workers' living standards and the fortunes of national economies. What explains the enormous variation in unionization and why has the last decade been so hostile to organized labor? Bruce Western tackles these questions in an analysis of labor union organization in eighteen capitalist democracies from 1950 to 1990. Combining insights from sociology and economics in a novel way, Western views unions as the joint product of market forces and political and economic institutions. The author 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 impact of market currents and explain variations across industries, across countries, and over time for the four decades since 1950. Between Class and Market traces the story of the postwar labor movements supported by a blend of historical investigation and sophisticated statistical analysis in an innovative framework for comparative research. Western tightly integrates institutional explanation and comparative method in a way that balances comparative generality with the unique historical experiences of specific cases.
Bruce Western is Assistant Professor of Sociology and a faculty associate of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University.
