Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation

This book has both empirical and theoretical goals. The primary empirical goal is to examine the evolution of industrial relations in Western Europe from the end of the 1970s up to the present. Its purpose is to evaluate the extent to which liberalization has taken hold of European industrial relations and institutions through five detailed, chapter-length studies, each focusing on a different country and including quantitative analysis. The book offers a comprehensive description and analysis of what has happened to the institutions that regulate the labor market, as well as the relations between employers, unions, and states in Western Europe since the collapse of the long postwar boom. The primary theoretical goal of this book is to provide a critical examination of some of the central claims of comparative political economy, particularly those involving the role and resilience of national institutions in regulating and managing capitalist political economies.

Lucio Baccaro is Professor of Sociology at the Université de Genève. He received his Ph.D. in industrial relations and political science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has authored numerous articles on the comparative political economy of industrial relations and labor markets, as well as on participatory and deliberative governance.

Chris Howell is Professor of Politics at Oberlin College. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University, Connecticut. He is the author of two books, Regulating Labor: The State and Industrial Relations Reform in France (1992), and Trade Unions and the State: Constructing Industrial Relations Institutions in Britain, 1890–2000 (2005). The latter won the 2006 Labor History prize for best book in labor studies.