Book Reviews
| Published date | 01 June 1999 |
| Date | 01 June 1999 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8543.00130 |
BOOK REVIEWS
Changing Industrial Relations in Europe edited by Anthony Ferner and Richard
Hyman. Blackwell, Oxford, 1998, xxvi + 550 pp., ISBN 1±55786±209±5, £85.00,
ISBN 0±631±20551±9, £24.00 paper.
Publishers promote new textbook editions in order to compete with other up-to-
date lists and undermine the second-hand book market. But researchers, lecturers
and students do prefer the latest information, in particular when new policy
developments and economic changes or new research has to be taken into account.
Although monthly reporting services cover recent developments in Europe
instantly, it is helpful to take stock and view current events in perspective. After
two reprints over ®ve years, Anthony Ferner and Richard Hyman have edited a
second, largely revised, edition of Industrial Relations in New Europe. The second
edition emphasizes in its revised title the transitionary character; as the editors
observe, `the new Europe is no longer so new, though it is still undergoing dynamic
change' (p. x). The ®rst edition was published `at a time of great transformation'
when the communist regimes were collapsing and the European Single Market was
created in 1992. Only now can we assess the impact of these junctures and the
ongoing challenges posed by internationalization and increased European economic
and monetary integration.
Like its ®rst edition, this volume represents a comprehensive survey of the same
17 Western European countries, that is, the member-states of the European Union,
plus Norway and Switzerland. Although both editions refer to `Europe' in the title,
the editors refrained from including Eastern Europe because of the dif®culty of
`well-anchored analysis of developments in these countries (p. ix). Such an EU-
centric perspective is less tenable at a time when the EU is opening its doors to ®ve
eastern European countries. It stands out because of the prominent team of country
experts and the inclusion of smaller countries that are often left out of comparative
analyses such as Belgium, Ireland, Portugal or Greece. The case studies are well
researched and provide a concise description of the main features and develop-
ments in industrial relations, and some authors excel in embedding their analysis in
theoretical debates and comparative perspectives. Although the increased impor-
tance of European integration is explicitly discussed in most chapters, one
shortcoming is the absence of a chapter on the developments at the European level.
The editors' introduction discusses the main processes and points at some
examples, but there is no comparative compass that maps more systematically the
British Journal of Industrial Relations
37:2 June 1999 0007±1080 pp. 337±360
#Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 1999. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd,
108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
main trends and patterns. Since hardly anyone will read all the material, a summary
chapter could have pointed at possible cases for interesting comparison. For
instance, Anders Kjellberg's chapter provides a comparative overview on the
Nordic model that helps readers to understand the Swedish case and invites
comparison with the following chapters on other Scandinavian countries.
The second edition is 100 pages leaner and is less expensive; it focuses on recent
changes and omits some of the historical and institutional details of the ®rst version.
Lecturers and students will welcome this, whereas specialists might still consult the
former edition with its more historical treatment and extended bibliographies.
Although no de®ned rigid structure was imposed, most authors discuss the main
topics more or less systematically. The history and characteristics of the national
model provide an introduction, followed by a description of the collective
bargaining system and regulatory framework, an overview on the organization of
employers and trade unions. Depending on their salience, the authors emphasize
such issues as employment patterns, economic development, workplace relations
and strikes.
Parallel reading of both editions reveals much about continuity or change over
the last ®ve years. A few country chapters have hardly been altered: those on
Austria and Switzerland even have the same titles, and Luxembourg also shows
continuity. In the shortened British chapter, written by the same team of Warwick
experts (Paul Edwards, Mark Hall, Richard Hyman, Paul Marginson, Keith Sisson,
Jeremy Waddington and David Winchester), new insights on recent privatization,
European integration and the debate on productivity performance were added. Yet
the 1990s have recon®rmed the authors' balanced view that marketization and
decentralization has occurred but has not completely individualized the system. On
the other hand, despite the new Labour government, a `social partnership' model is
also unlikely owing to the absence of a strong regulatory framework.
Otto Jacobi, Berndt Keller and Walther Mu
Èller-Jentsch, resonating the current
debate on Standort (locational) disadvantages and political and institutional inertia,
now paint the German model in gloomier colours. In the earlier version, they
praised the extension of the established system of industrial relations to the new
eastern parts. Today, a more pessimistic view prevails. Both employers' associations
and trade unions face declining membership and diminishing compliance. The
project of `co-determining the future', the title of the ®rst version, failed because of
employers' and government's unwillingness to negotiate a social pact. At the same
time, the calls for decentralized bargaining and employment ¯exibilization have
mounted.
Other authors have also explicitly reversed their own judgement and considerably
rewritten their chapters, most notably Jelle Visser, who now tells the Dutch success
story of the return to `responsive corporatism' (p. 283), that is, national policy co-
ordination to support economic adjustment, after having proclaimed the `end of a
system' in the ®rst edition. The Dutch chapter, which links changes in industrial
relations and social policy, sheds some doubts on the rather conventional analysis in
the British, German and Swedish chapters. These focus mainly on industrial
relations issues, re-evaluating the trends towards decentralization in collective
bargaining and deregulation of employment relations. Yet the Dutch case and many
of the small country studies, as well as the Italian and French analyses, go beyond
the area of industrial relations and discuss the reform of the welfare state. The 1995
strike wave in France, described by Janine Goetschy, might be an exceptional but
telling example of how social security reform spills over into industrial relations. In
#Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 1999.
338 British Journal of Industrial Relations
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