Alexandre Afonso Social Concertation in Times of Austerity

261 Pages·2013·1.46 MB·English

Alexandre Afonso
Social Concertation
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Why and when do governments negotiate with trade unions and employers s in
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about labour market reforms? Drawing on a comparison of unemployment n European Integration and the Politics of Labour
and labour migration policy in two countries, Social Concertation in Times a
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of Austerity: European Integration and the Politics of Labour Market Reforms c Market Reforms in Austria and Switzerland
in Austria and Switzerland shows that governments involve organised
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interests in policy-making when they are faced with party-political divisions,
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or when policy reforms are likely to have risky electoral consequences. c
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Alexandre Afonso is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Economy at l
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King’s College London.
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“Afonso’s interesting comparison […] sheds light on why governments sometimes fall back
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on corporatist institutions, even in the current economic climate. And that reason is, in a e
word, political: because governments need the cover of such bargaining when they face r
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electoral risks.” a
Prof. Pepper Culpepper, European University Institute, Florence t
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“This interesting book contributes to move comparative political economy research away n
from rationalistic accounts […] and to bring it closer to an historically-contingent and
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actor-centered reconstruction of institutional trajectories.” n
Prof. Lucio Baccaro, University of Geneva
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isbn 978 90 8964 395 7
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www.aup.nl t
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Amsterdam University Press
A m s t e r d a m U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s
social concertation in times of austerity
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CHANGING WELFARE STATES
For quite some time, a key fi nding and theoretical puzzle in comparative
welfare state research was welfare states’ remarkable stability. In the last
decade, however, it has become clear that advanced welfare states were (far)
less immovable than they seemed at fi rst. In fact, speaking of changing wel-
fare states captures much better the actual reforms that were taking place.
Th is series is about the trajectories of those changes. Have there been path-
breaking welfare innovations or are the changes incremental instead? Are
welfare states moving in a similar or even convergent direction, or are they
embarking on divergent trajectories of change? What new policies have
been added, by which kind of political actors, how, and with what conse-
quences for competitiveness, employment, income equality and poverty,
gender relations, human capital formation, or fi scal sustainability? What
is the role of the European Union in shaping national welfare state reform?
Th is series answers these and related questions by studying the socioeco-
nomic, institutional and political conditions for welfare state change, its
governance, and its outcomes across a diverse set of policy areas. Th e policy
areas can address traditional “old” social risks like old age, unemployment,
sickness (including the health care system), disability and poverty and in-
equality in general, or “new” social risks that have arisen mainly due to
post-industrialization, such as reconciling work and family life, non-stan-
dard employment, and low and inadequate skills. In addition to focusing on
the welfare state more narrowly defi ned, the series also welcomes publica-
tion on related areas, such as the housing market. Th e overriding objective
of the series is tracing and explaining the full trajectories of contemporary
welfare state change and its outcomes.
editors of the series
Gøsta Esping-Andersen, University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
Brian Burgoon, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Anton Hemerijck, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Barbara Vis, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Kimberly Morgan, George Washington University, Washington, USA
Herman van der Werfhorst, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Social Concertation in
Times of Austerity
European Integration and the Politics of
Labour Market Reforms in Austria and
Switzerland
Alexandre Afonso
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Cover illustration: Egon Schiele, Häuser mit bunter Wäsche – Vorstadt II
(1914)
Cover design: Crasborn Grafisch Ontwerpers bno, Valkenburg a/d Geul
Lay-out: V3-Services, Baarn
isbn 978 90 8964 395 7
e-isbn 978 90 4851 299 7 (pdf)
e-isbn 978 90 4851 562 2 (ePub)
nur 759
© Alexandre Afonso / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2013
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved
above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (elec-
tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the
written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the
book.
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Table of Contents
List of Tables and Figures 7
List of Abbreviations 9
Acknowledgements 13
1 The Strange Survival of Social Concertation in Times of Austerity 15
1 The Puzzle 15
2 The Argument in Brief 20
3 Outline of the Book 22
2 Social Concertation as a Political Strategy 25
1 Gone with the Wind? Th e Transformations of Corporatism in Europe 25
2 Describing and Explaining Social Concertation 36
3 A Theory of Political Choice for Social Concertation 44
4 Summary 52
3 European Integration, Domestic Politics and Social Concertation 53
1 Internationalisation and Social Concertation: A Prelude 54
2 The Dynamic of Supranational Market-Making in the EU 56
3 T he Contested Impact of European Integration on Social
Concertation 58
4 European Integration and the Politics of Social Concertation 63
5 Summary 73
4 Methods and Cases 75
1 Measuring Social Concertation 75
2 Explaining Social Concertation: Process-Tracing 77
3 Explaining Social Concertation: Comparing Cases 80
4 Strategies of Data Collection 88
5 Summary 89
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5 The Context of Social Concertation in Switzerland and Austria 91
1 S witzerland: Veto Points, Right-Wing Dominance and the Emergence of
the Swiss People’s Party 93
2 Austria: Corporatism and the Exhaustion of “Proporz” 103
3 Summary 109
6 Social Concertation and Cross-Border Labour Mobility 111
1 Cross-Border Labour Mobility and EU Enlargement 113
2 Austria: Cross-Class Consensus Under a Common Threat 120
3 Switzerland: The Strong Weapons of the Weak 132
4 Summary 154
7 Social Concertation and Unemployment Policy Reforms 155
1 The Politics of Unemployment Policy 156
2 Austria: The Limits of Unilateral Policymaking 159
3 S witzerland: Welfare State Retrenchment and the Radical Right-Wing
Push 174
4 Summary 193
8 Synthesis and Comparative Outlook 195
1 Assessing Explanatory Variables 195
2 Limitations and Comparative Evidence 201
3 Conclusion: Securing Consent in Times of Austerity 211
List of Interviews 215
Notes 217
References 223
Index 253
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
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List of Tables and Figures
Tables
Table 1 A uthority Index (0-1) of Trade Unions in Wage Bargaining in
eight countries, 1960-2000 30
Table 2 Summary of Case Selection 87
Table 3 S hare of Seats of the main parties in the Austrian Nationalrat,
1986-2008 105
Table 4 g dp per capita in the eu 25, efta and candidate countries in
pps, 2004. Average: 100 117
Table 5 A gendas of “orthodox” unemployment policy reforms 157
Table 6 “Concertation scores” of policy reforms 195
Figures
Figure 1 C ollective Bargaining Coverage in eight countries,
1960-2000 31
Figure 2 Trade Union Density in eight countries, 1960-2009 33
Figure 3 I ndex of Strike Activity in eight countries, 1960-2009 (decade
averages) 34
Figure 4 I ndex of Routine Involvement of Social Partners in
Policymaking, seventeen countries, 1960-2010 37
Figure 5 P arliamentary Representation of Populist Right-Wing
Parties 71
Figure 6 D istribution of Seats in the Swiss National Council,
1987-2011 98
Figure 7 S tandardised unemployment rate, Austria, Switzerland and
European Union, 1993-2009 164
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List of Abbreviations
abvakabo Public Sector Union (Netherlands)
ak Chamber of Labour (Austria)
ams Public Employment Service (Austria)
avrag Law on the Adaptation of Labour Law (Austria)
bak Austrian Chamber of Labour
bmwa Federal Ministry for Economy and Employment (Austria)
bzö Alliance for the Future of Austria
cda Christian Democratic Appeal (Netherlands)
cdu Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
chf Swiss Francs
cla Collective Labour Agreement
cme Coordinated Market Economy
csu Christian Social Union (Germany)
cvp Christian Democratic Party of Switzerland
dcp Draft Common Position
dg Directorate General
dgb German Trade Union Federation
ec European Community
ecj European Court of Justice
eea European Economic Area
ees European Employment Strategy
efta European Free Trade Association
eiro European Industrial Relation Observatory
emu Economic and Monetary Union
ert European Round Table of Industrialists
etuc European Trade Union Confederation
eu European Union
fdp Free Democratic Party (Switzerland)
fnv Dutch Trade Union Confederation (Netherlands)
fpö Freedom Party (Austria)
gbi Construction and Industry Trade Union (Switzerland)
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