1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910812652303321

Autore

Howell Chris <1962->

Titolo

Trade unions and the state : the construction of industrial relations institutions in Britain, 1890-2000 / / Chris Howell

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, N.J., : Princeton University Press, c2005

ISBN

1-282-15859-7

9786612158599

1-4008-2661-6

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (254 p.)

Classificazione

15.70

Disciplina

331/.0941/0904

Soggetti

Labor unions - Government policy - Great Britain - History - 20th century

Industrial relations - Government policy - Great Britain - History - 20th century

Labor movement - Great Britain - History - 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-235) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. Introduction: The Puzzle of British Industrial Relations -- Chapter 2. Constructing Industrial Relations Institutions -- Chapter 3. The Construction of the Collective Laissez-Faire System, 1890-1940 -- Chapter 4. Donovan, Dissension, and the Decentralization of Industrial Relations, 1940-1979 -- Chapter 5. The Decollectivization of Industrial Relations, 1979-1997 -- Chapter 6. The Third Way and Beyond: The Future of British Industrial Relations -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The collapse of Britain's powerful labor movement in the last quarter century has been one of the most significant and astonishing stories in recent political history. How were the governments of Margaret Thatcher and her successors able to tame the unions? In analyzing how an entirely new industrial relations system was constructed after 1979, Howell offers a revisionist history of British trade unionism in the twentieth century. Most scholars regard Britain's industrial relations institutions as the product of a largely laissez faire system of labor relations, punctuated by occasional government interference. Howell, on the other hand, argues that the British state was the prime architect



of three distinct systems of industrial relations established in the course of the twentieth century. The book contends that governments used a combination of administrative and judicial action, legislation, and a narrative of crisis to construct new forms of labor relations. Understanding the demise of the unions requires a reinterpretation of how these earlier systems were constructed, and the role of the British government in that process. Meticulously researched, Trade Unions and the State not only sheds new light on one of Thatcher's most significant achievements but also tells us a great deal about the role of the state in industrial relations.