CONNECTIVE BARGAINING AND COMPETITIVE BARGAINING
| Published date | 01 June 1974 |
| Date | 01 June 1974 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1974.tb00182.x |
| Author | Lloyd Ulman |
Scottish
Journal
of
Political
Economy
Vol.
XXI,
No.
2,
June
1974
SCOTTISH
JOURNAL
OF
POLITICAL
ECONOMY
June
1974
CONNECTIVE BARGAINING
AND COMPETITIVE BARGAINING
LLOYD
ULMAN*
I
STRUCTURE,
PERFORMANCE
AND
POLICY-MAKING
In
the past structural differences among systems
of
industrial relations and
collective bargaining have engaged the interat
of
scholars
because
of
the
light they shed
on
the goals
and
strategies pursued
by
labour movements
and
empIoyer groups. More recentIy, preoccupation with governmental pro-
grammes
of
wage
and
price
restraint
has
stimulated the intm
of
policy-
makers
as
well as scholars
in
the performance characteristics
of
different
systems
of
collective bargaining.
Two
questions
are
involved. First, is
the
inflationary potential
of
an
economy affected
by
the
degree
to which its collective
bargaining
system
is
centralized; and,
if
so,
in what direction
and
at what levels?
Second,
is
a
centralized bargaining system
more
amenable
than
a decentralized system,
other things being equal, to official pressures for wage restraint?
If
a
centra-
lized system is less inflation-prone and more readily restrained, then a
policy
d
structural refoam aimed at
grater
centralization would further the
objectives
of
stabilization policy, including incomes policy.
If,
on
the
con-
trary, a decentralized system is less inflation-prone than
a
more centralized
one, while the latter
is
more easily controlled, the polioy-maker is confronted
with a
choice
between
structural
reform (aimed
at
decentralization rather
than
at more centralization) and incoma policy.
Thus
the availability
of
reliable
information
on
the economic effects
of
different bargaining structures would
be
most
useful
in assessing the relative r&ws
to
alternative policy
oom-
binations. At the same time, information
on
the determinants
of
bargaining
structures-and
in
particular
on
the
degree
to which bargaining structures
*
The
writer wishes
to
acknowledge the generous
assistance
of
the
Institutes
of
International Studies and of Industrial Relations
of
the
University
of
California at
Berkeley.
This
paper was first given at
the
3rd
World
Congress
of
the
International
Industrial Relations Association,
London,
September
1973.
7
97
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