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Title Left-of-centre parties and trade unions in the twenty-first century / edited by Elin Haugsgjerd Allern and Tim Bale
Published Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2017

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Description 1 online resource : illustrations
Summary Both parties and interest groups matter to democracy. Historically, examples of close relationships between the two abound. But perhaps the best known - because it was supposedly the most intimate and politically important - is the relationship between left-of-centre parties and trade unions. Whether rooted in a shared history, culture, and ideology or simply a 'marriage of convenience', the links between them helped socialist, social democratic, and labour parties win power and deliver huge gains to the working class in the post-war period. In recent decades, however, it has been widely argued that the links between left-of-centre parties and trade unions have declined as their collaboration has become less mutually beneficial, not least as a consequence of structural changes in the economy and labour market. This volume interrogates, qualifies, and even challenges that widespread assumption. 0Based on a brand new dataset, including organizational gathered by a cross-national team of experts, it uncovers and explores what turns out to be considerable variation in the strength of contemporary organizational links between parties and unions in twelve different countries that have been democracies since at least the mid- to late-1940s. Testing a series of hypotheses on the importance of on the impact of particular political systems and socio-economic factors, and on the costs and benefits for both parties and unions, detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis reveals that, left-of-centre party-trade union links are stronger where trade unions are larger, denser, and more unified and where parties are less able to rely on the state to finance their organizational activities and electoral campaigns. Moreover, it remains the case that the links between parties and unions still matter in policy terms
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Vendor-supplied metadata
Subject Labor unions -- Political activity -- History -- 21st century
Labor unions and socialism -- History -- 21st century
Socialist parties -- History -- 21st century
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Political Process -- Political Advocacy.
Socialist parties
Labor unions and socialism
Labor unions -- Political activity
Gewerkschaft
Die Linke
Mitte-Links-Partei
Sozialdemokratie
Great Britain
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Form Electronic book
Author Allern, Elin Haugsgjerd, editor
Bale, Tim, 1965- editor.
ISBN 9780192507709
0192507702
9780192507716
0192507710
9780191831751
0191831751