Governing & Jobs: America's Business-Centered Labor Market Policy

Abstract

The governance of labor markets indicates the balance capitalist democracies strike between market forces and citizen claims for security and equity. This article presents three models of labor market policy-egalitarian, guardian, and business-centered-and finds that American public policy best fits the latter of these. The author argues that labor market policy in the U.S., while similar in many ways to that of other capitalist democracies, differs importantly in protections given the autonomy of private managers and in the use of job programs as substitutes rather than supplements for income maintenance programs. He shows further that this approach has characterized all of the major reform eras in American politics over the last century and questions whether the nation is receiving value for money spent on labor market policy.