1st Edition

Comparative Union Democracy Organization and Opposition in British and American Unions

By J. David Edelstein Copyright 1979
    400 Pages
    by Routledge

    400 Pages
    by Routledge

    A major empirical study of thirty-one British and fifty-one American national trade unions, this volume provides the background to a new, or­ganizationally oriented theory of union democ­racy. Supported by in-depth studies of the political process in the British Mineworkers' Union and the Engineers' Union, the book develops and illus­trates a general theory of how, in a country with democratic norms, formal organization itself can constrain a tendency toward oligarchy by stimu­lating union competition among full-time officers attempting to rise in the union hierarchy.Comparative Union Democracy is easily the best work on the subject that has appeared in years. It should be required reading for all those interested in organizational government, participatory de­mocracy, generally, as well as in the labor move­ment.

    PART ONE COMPARATIVE AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 1 Introduction: The Comparative Approach 2 The Nature of Oligarchy 3 An Organisational Theory of Union Democracy PART TWO OVERALL FINDINGS 4 Overall British-American Differences in Organisation and Opposition 5 Organisation and Opposition in the United States 6 Organisation and Opposition in Britain 7 Opposition, Factions and Political Culture PART THREE CASE-STUDIES IN OPPOSITION 8 Case-Study 1: Sustained Electoral Opposition in the British Mine workers' Union 9 Case-Study 2: Sustained Electoral Opposition in the British Engineering Union 10 Case-Study 3: Top-level Defeats in Certain American Unions PART FOUR CONCLUSIONS 11 The Future of Union Democracy

    Biography

    J. David Edelstein