Trade Union Strategy in Contemporary Capitalism: The Microeconomic and Macroeconomic Implications of Political Unionism

Abstract

Trade union movements in advanced capitalist economies pursue different strategies and draw on different organizational resources at both macropolitical and micropolitical levels. While the theoretical implications of industrial and political strategies have been extensively debated, the actual outcomes of political unionism have rarely been subjected to rigorous empirical investigation. Utilizing data drawn from three different surveys of union strategies and measures of industrial and economic democracy in seven capitalist economies since the mid-1970s, this paper examines the microeconomic and macroeconomic implications of political unionism. The evidence suggests that while political unionism results in both macroeconomic and microeconomic outcomes favourable to labour, at the level of the labour process these achievements are registered in the empowerment of collective actors (unions and works councils) rather than individual actors (workers).