Impacts of decentralisation - Erosion or renewal?

Article by Anna Ilsøe, Jørgen Steen Madsen & Jesper Due

In recent decades Germany and Denmark have constituted survival areas for the classical IR system in an era that has otherwise largely been characterised by the deregulation and disorganisation of industrial relations. From the mid-1990s onwards it has though to varying degrees been possible to observe erosive tendencies in these hitherto strong fortresses of what Traxler has described as organised decentralisation.

It is the main thesis of this article that the dualistic German system makes it more difficult for the German parties to adapt the bargaining system so that their overall coordination can be preserved even though the required decentralisation is introduced. The thesis is investigated through an extensive comparison of the drivers, contexts and outcomes of decentralisation in the industry of Denmark and Germany over the last 10-15 years. It is concluded that the one-string representation system as well as the more homogeneous composition of company sizes in Denmark are core explanations why, Denmark show less erosive tendencies than Germany and more signs of renewal in the development towards multi-level regulation. 

Article in Industrielle Beziehungen, Volume 14, Issue 3, 2007.

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