Hot Autumn Research Articles

Twenty Years after the Hot Autumn: Work and Politics in Italy from Rupture to Change

Abstract. In the first paper the authors make a critical analysis of the interpretations and models generally used for it caso italiano(the Italian Case) and propose explanations that are not one‐sided, and that take into account all the elements of continuity which characterised the various phases of these last twenty years.The second paper examines the institutional features of the Italian industrial relations system, and underlines its ‘constant characteristic’. that is. its under‐institutionalisation. The author emphasises the negative effects of these institutional shortcomings, and shows concern that the much exalted ‘flexibility’ of the Italian system could be detrimental, rather than positive, as it derives from these shortcomings.The note by Guido Romagnoli. attempts to use some theoretical statements on union behaviour, as the key to interpret the events of the Italian case. The author then indicates some aspects and reasons for the crisis of Italian unions.The fourth paper examines the relationship of the unions with the Italian political system over the last twenty years. This article suggests that it is characterised by considerable continuity in stabilising this political system, both in phases of strength and in times of weakness. This stabilising role has. however, not been reciprocated; in fact, not only has the political system not stabilised the unions and industrial relations, but has become a major obstacle to their strategic reorientation.The last paper in this group of essays on the Autunno Caldo offers what could be termed an ‘institutional’ explanation of union continuity, analysing the various phases of collective mobilisation. political exchange and flexibility, and examines the relationships between the social actors during these phases.The selection of papers published here is in memoriam of our colleague and friend Guido Romagnoli, who suddenly died shortly after the conference. For this reason it includes the outline that he presented at that conference which he could not develop into a full article.

Relationships Among Union Actors after the Hot Autumn

Relationships Among Union Actors after the Hot Autumn

Seasonal allocation of dry mass and nitrogen in a fynbos endemic Restionaceae species Thamnochortus punctatus Pill.

The annual growth pattern of male plants of the endemic, dioecious fynbos species, Thamnochortus punctatus, revealed sequential growth of the various below-and above-ground organs. Root and rhizome development were favoured in the wet winter months while culm elongation occurred in the warmer but drier spring to summer period. The reproductive phase of development followed in the hot dry summer and autumn. The asynchronous pattern of growth is suggested to enable the plant to maximize utilization of scarce resources within the confines of the environmental controls determined by the mediterranean-climate. Maximum root and rhizome activity in the rainy season enabled the plant to absorb and store nitrogen in mature culms for later above ground organ development. As the absorption of nitrogen from senscing material is essential for this pattern of organ development to assist in alleviating nutrient scarcity the high degree of nitrogen reabsorption, 35 to 70% for branches and culms respectively, shows the potential importance of asynchronous organ growth in overcoming nitrogen limitation of plant growth. Comparisons of dry mass and nitrogen allocation patterns indicate that developmental strategies employed by evergreen, perennial plants in climatically and edaphically constrained environments cannot be deduced from biomass allocation patterns alone as they do not appear to reflect strategies evolved to overcome nutrient limitation.

Organizing Interests in Western Europe: Pluralism, Corporatism, and the Transformation of Politics.

Preface Introduction Suzanne Berger Part I. The determinants of interest group formation: 1. 'Fictitious bonds ... of wealth and law' Charles S. Maier 2. Class formation, interest articulation and public policy Jurgen Kocka 3. Regime and interest representation Suzanne Berger 4. Local corporatism Gudmund Hernes and Arne Selvik Part II. The functioning of interest groups 5. The attribution of public status to interest groups Claus Offe 6. German interest group alliances in war and inflation, 1914-1923 Gerald D. Feldman 7. Corporatism and official hegemony John T. S. Keeler 8. The internal politics of trade unions Charles F. Sabel Part III. State, society and representation: the changing relationship 9. Interests and parties in pluralism Alessandro Pizzorno 10. Interest intermediation and regime governability in contemporary Western Europe and North America Philippe C. Schmitter 11. May 1968 and the Hot Autumn of 1969 Michele Salvati 12. A century of politics and interests in Spain Juan J. Linz Index.

On the Political Economy of Long-Run Trends in Strike Activity

Outbursts of strike activity in many industrial societies during the late 1960s and early 1970s focused considerable attention on relations between labour, capital and the state in advanced capitalist systems and led to many inquiries into the sources of the ‘new’ labour militancy. The events of May–June 1968 in France, the ‘hot autumn’ of 1969 in Italy, and the nation-wide strikes of the coal miners in 1972 and 1974 in the United Kingdom (the first since the great General Strike of 1926) are the most dramatic examples, but sharp upturns in strike activity in Canada (1969, 1972), Finland (1971), the United States (1970) and smaller strike waves in other nations also contributed to the surge of interest in labour discontent.