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Organized Labor in European Countries, 1960–2006: Persistent Diversity and Shared Decline

Comparing European Workers Part B: Policies and Institutions

ISBN: 978-0-85724-931-9, eISBN: 978-0-85724-932-6

Publication date: 19 June 2011

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to show how patterns of union organization vary over time and across countries in the economically advanced world, with a focus on Europe.

Methodology/approach – The data analysis uses the “Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts” dataset to report on patterns of union density in 16 economically advanced countries between 1960 and 2006 and draws on the European Social Survey to show how union membership is segmented by gender, educational attainment and economic sector in 13 European economically advanced countries during the 2000s.

Findings – The chapter demonstrates more clearly than in previous work that trends of decline in union density cut across national varieties of capitalism; on average, the trends look quite similar in Anglo-American liberal countries and the coordinated countries of Continental Europe. On the other hand, cross-national differences are still important, as evident in the fact that the Nordic countries have not experienced substantial declines.

Originality/value – Current work in political economy is marked by a dividing line between those who see change over time or cross-country differences as the primary axis of variation in contemporary capitalism. Some focus on differences between periods of embedded liberalism and neoliberalism, while others key on distinctions between liberal and coordinated national models. This chapter advocates an integrated approach that captures more fully the ways in which forms of organization in different institutional domains vary across both time and space.

Keywords

Citation

Pinto, S. and Beckfield, J. (2011), "Organized Labor in European Countries, 1960–2006: Persistent Diversity and Shared Decline", Brady, D. (Ed.) Comparing European Workers Part B: Policies and Institutions (Research in the Sociology of Work, Vol. 22 Part 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 153-179. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0277-2833(2011)000022B008

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited