Trade unions, politics and parties: is a new configuration possible?
Hyman, R. and Gumbrell-McCormick, Rebecca (2010) Trade unions, politics and parties: is a new configuration possible? Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 16 (3), pp. 315-331. ISSN 1024-2589.
Abstract
Trade unions are not merely economic (or ‘industrial relations’) actors: they are necessarily protagonists in the political arena. Regulating the labour market is a question of power resources. Yet if unions are inescapably both economic and political actors, the relationship between the two roles is complex and contradictory, and the priority assigned to each varies across countries and over time. Four factors seem of particular importance in explaining these distinctive patterns: ideology, opportunity structures, organizational capacity and contextual challenges. We explore these issues with reference to ten west European countries, and end by pointing to some of the ideational and practical reasons why unions must explicitly redefine their political identities.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | Trade unions, politics, government, parties, social democracy, communism, christian democracy, Europe |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Business School |
| Depositing User: | Administrator |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Dec 2013 11:24 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:08 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/8871 |
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