Marco Simoni

Centralized Wage Bargaining and the Celtic Tiger Phenomenon

Drawing on a variety of sources and research methods, this article argues that centralized wage bargaining contributed to the “Celtic Tiger” phenomenon by linking wage increases in the dynamic multinational companies sector to wage and productivity increases in the much more sluggish domestic sector of the economy and, in so doing, considerably increased the competitiveness of foreign multinational companies—a key driver of Irish growth. The article also argues that much-received wisdom about the institutional and organizational preconditions for centralized wage regulation needs to be reconsidered in light of the Irish case. Public sector unions played a pivotal role in initiating and sustaining wage centralization, yet their leadership role did not undermine its effectiveness. Likewise, internal democratic procedures and the absence of wage compression policies, rather than centralized organizational structures, facilitated compliance with centralized wage policies.

The Left and Organized Labor in Low-Inflation Times

This article presents fresh empirical data showing that policy alignment between center-left governments and trade unions was a sustained feature of European politics between 1974 and 2005. This contradicts expectations of a wide delinkage between the electoral left and labor as a consequence of globalization, deindustrialization, and unionization decline. However, structural economic change has altered the policy field so that sustained policy alignment can no longer be explained by existing theoretical frameworks. Based on a theoretical argument and a multivariate empirical test, the article contends that policy alignment is likelier to occur if labor plays an important role in economic management at the microlevel and the industry level and if unions are politically cohesive agents thanks to powerful confederation leadership supported by democratic decision-making practices. In making its case, the article bridges the literatures on comparative capitalism and party politics, in order to account for change and continuity in policy-making processes

The Politics of Welfare State Reform in Continental Europe: Modernization in Hard Times

have semi-presidential systems, with presidents, in some instances, enjoying strong veto powers. Robert’s book is an important contribution to the study of how the new CEE democracies function and fulfil their normative promises. It raises a number of both theoretical and empirical issues that require further scrutiny. Irrespective of some shortcomings, this is a very innovative contribution to our knowledge about democratisations, democracies and democratic quality. Extremely well written, the book is a must for both democratic comparativists as well as specialists in Eastern Europe.