Class Political Organizing and Welfare Capitalism

Abstract

Studies of business' role in the development of the welfare state, while noting the ability of capitalist class coalitions to affect state policy, focus narrowly on battles over specific policies. They tend to emphasize temporary alliances and to overlook capitalists' extensive organizational activities in regulating capital-labor relations even before the New Deal — particularly through the open shop and welfare capitalist movements. This paper examines these organizations, how they forged class coalitions, and how they articulated with the state. It shows that organizational capacity is an important variable in theorizing capital-state relations. Capital's organizational capacity is affected by historical conditions that impact the development of class segments, the organizational capacity of labor, and state structures and agendas.