Wolfgang Streeck

From National Corporatism to Transnational Pluralism: Organized Interests in the Single European Market:

Whatever the differences between the various versions of the theory, or &dquo;pre-theory&dquo;1 of European regional integration, organized interest groups were always assigned a prominent place in it. Especially in the &dquo;neofunctionalist&dquo; image of &dquo;Europe’s would-be polity&dquo;2 and of the path to that polity, supranational interest-group formation was expected to serve, in an important and indispensable sense, as a substitute for popular identification with the emerging new political community above and beyond the nation-state.3 Most observers and in fact most participants in the integration process fully expected that the citizens of Europe would for a long time continue to adhere to traditional, national passions and identities. They knew that if the united Europe had to wait until its citizens began

Political Economy of Modern Capitalism: Mapping Convergence and Diversity

Modern capitalism, from neo-liberalism to deregulation, has come to dominate national and international political economy. This major book addresses this convergence and provides a comprehensive overview of the implications for future capitalist diversity. Leading international contributors consider important questions. Is the preference for free markets a well-founded response to intensified global competition? Does this mean that all advanced societies must converge on an imitation of the United States? What are the implications for the institutional diversity of the advanced economies? How do we now evaluate the systems and institutions in East Asia? Political Economy and Modern Capitalism provides a practical and wide-ranging analysis of the public policy choices facing governments and business around the world. It will be invaluable reading for students and researchers of political economy, comparative politics, political science, political sociology, public policy, and administration.

Private interest government : beyond market and state

Market liberalism and state interventionism are both challenged as modes of democratic government by this book. It suggests that the development of private interest governments might be a more viable policy alternative for the future. It also questions whether the state could devolve certain public policy responsibilities to interest associations in specific economic sectors. The book focuses specifically on interest associations in a disaggregated, rather than global, approach to economics and politics. Ten Western industrialized countries are covered, subjects ranging from advertising with self-regulation, private accountancy regulation and the British voluntary sector to four comparative papers on the corporatist arrangements in the governance of the dairy industry.

Social institutions and economic performance : studies of industrial relations in advanced capitalist economies

Productive constraints on the institutional conditions of diversified quality production revising status and contract - pluralism, corporatism and flexibility interest heterogeneity and organizing capacity - two class logics of collective action? the logics of associative action and the territorial organization of interests - the case of German Handwerk co-determination - the fourth decade successful adjustment to turbulent markets - the German automobile industry in the 1970s and 1980s from national corporatism to transnational pluralism - organized interests in the Single European Market, (with Phillipe C. Schmitter).

The internationalization of industrial relations in Europe: prospects and problems

European industrial relations are rapidly internationalizing; internationalization, however, is not necessarily de-nationalization. Even as European integration accelerates, national politics and industrial relations will remain the principal arenas for the social regulation of work and employment in Europe. The paper investigates the implications of European industrial relations developing into a multi-level system within which national regimes compete with each other in an integrated international market. In particular, it tries to outline the emerging new peace formula between business and labor in Europe, which is centered on the notion of joint competitiveness, and its consequences for social protection and the regulation of labor markets. Five examples are given for the continuing importance of national industrial relations in integrated Europe: the renewal of tripartite concertation at national level, especially under the pressure of the Maastricht criteria; the likely impact of European Monetary Union on national collective bargaining regimes; the practical consequences of the European Works Councils Directive of 1994; the experience with the Social Dialogue since the Maastricht Treaty; and the Posted Workers Directive, which is discussed as a possible paradigm of the future relationship between European and national social protection in Europe.

The crumbling pillars of social partnership

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Economic Reform and the Political Economy of the German Welfare State

The central problem of the German economy is the high costs of labour, driven up by the burden of funding an extensive welfare state through social insurance contributions that operate as payroll taxes on employment. The study identifies the political causes of the long-term rise in non-wage labour costs. It analyses the reforms of the last decade, showing how the multiplicity of veto points in the German political economy has weakened reform initiatives and reduced the prospect for effective reform in the foreseeable future.

Industrial citizenship under regime competition: the case of the European works councils

Europe will not turn into a federal state. As a consequence citizenship in Europe will remain nationally based. Due to the joint commitment of European Union member states to the freedoms of a common market, national citizenship regimes have become accountable to supranational rules, obliging them in particular not to discriminate against citizens of other member states. Sometimes this is regarded as a welcome dissociation of citizenship from the institution of the state, leading to it becoming vested in the voluntarism of a civil society kept together by common values. Drawing on the example of European Union policy on workplace representation, the paper argues that national fragmentation of citizenship in an integrated economy, however coordinated by international rules, has far less benevolent effects. In addition to exposing advanced forms of citizenship to economic competition, and in particular pressuring national systems to lower their standards of social inclusion, it also falls short of affording foreigners truly equal rights. The paper concludes that citizenship under economic competition and without being backed by state capacity inevitably lacks elements that were essential to the concept of citizenship in postwar European nation-states.

Theories and Practices of Neocorporatism

The modern territorial state and the capitalist market economy superseded a political–economic order that consisted of a plethora of corporate communities endowed with traditional rights and obligations, such as churches, estates, cities, and guilds. Organized collectivities of all sorts, more or less closely related to the economic division of labor, regulated cooperation and competition among their members and negotiated their relations with each other. While themselves changing under the impact of modernization, they often resisted the rise of territorial bureaucratic rule and the spread of market relations, sometimes well into the twentieth century. But ultimately they proved unable to prevent the victory of the state form of political organization and of the self-regulating market as the dominant site of economic exchange. Modern liberalism, both political and economic, in turn aimed at abolishing all forms of intermediary organization that intervene between the individual and the state or the market. In the end, however, it failed to eliminate collectivism and had to accommodate itself to both political faction and economic cooperation. Twenty-first-century political communities are all organized by territorial nation-states. But these had to learn to incorporate organized collectivities and elements of a collective–associative order in their different configurations of bureaucratic hierarchy and free markets. Variation among modern types of government, between the utopian extremes of anarchosyndicalism and Rousseauian radical liberalism, rotates around the relationship between territorial and associative rule (Table 22.1).

From Stability to Stagnation: Germany at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.