Unions Against Governments: Explaining General Strikes in Western Europe, 1980-2006

    Authors

    K. Hamann; A. Johnston;J. Kelly

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Comp. Polit. Stud.

    Keywords

    general strikes; unions; social pacts; Western Europe; policy reforms; GLOBALIZATION; CORPORATISM; PROTESTS; GREECE; LABOR; Political Science

    Abstract

    Across Western Europe, unions have increasingly engaged in staging general strikes against governments since 1980. This increase in general strikes is puzzling as it has occurred at the same time as economic strikes have been on the decline. We posit that theories developed to explain economic strikes hold little explanatory power in accounting for variation in general strikes across countries and over time. Instead, we develop a framework based on political variables; in particular, whether governments have included or excluded unions in framing policy reforms; the party position of the government; and the type of government. Our empirical analysis, based on a conditional fixed-effects logit estimation of 84 general strikes between 1980 and 2006, shows that union exclusion from the process of reforming policies, government strength, and the party position of the government can provide an initial explanation for the occurrence of general strikes.

    Journal Title

    Comparative Political Studies

    Volume

    46

    Issue/Number

    9

    Publication Date

    1-1-2013

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    1030

    Last Page

    1057

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000322322800002

    ISSN

    0010-4140

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