Alexandre Afonso Social Concertation s A e t l a e t x s a n e in Times of Austerity d r a r f e l A e w f o g n Why and when do governments negotiate with trade unions and employers s in o g 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 h 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 S interests in policy-making when they are faced with party-political divisions, o or when policy reforms are likely to have risky electoral consequences. c i a Alexandre Afonso is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Economy at l C King’s College London. o n “Afonso’s interesting comparison […] sheds light on why governments sometimes fall back c 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 t electoral risks.” a Prof. Pepper Culpepper, European University Institute, Florence t i o “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 i actor-centered reconstruction of institutional trajectories.” n Prof. Lucio Baccaro, University of Geneva T i m e s o f A isbn 978 90 8964 395 7 u s t e r i www.aup.nl t y 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 SSoocciiaall CCoonncceerrttaattiioonn iinn TTiimmeess ooff AAuusstteerriittyy..iinndddd 11 1144--0011--1133 1155::5566::3311 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 SSoocciiaall CCoonncceerrttaattiioonn iinn TTiimmeess ooff AAuusstteerriittyy..iinndddd 22 1144--0011--1133 1155::5566::3311 Social Concertation in Times of Austerity European Integration and the Politics of Labour Market Reforms in Austria and Switzerland Alexandre Afonso SSoocciiaall CCoonncceerrttaattiioonn iinn TTiimmeess ooff AAuusstteerriittyy..iinndddd 33 1144--0011--1133 1155::5566::3311 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. SSoocciiaall CCoonncceerrttaattiioonn iinn TTiimmeess ooff AAuusstteerriittyy..iinndddd 44 1144--0011--1133 1155::5566::3311 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 SSoocciiaall CCoonncceerrttaattiioonn iinn TTiimmeess ooff AAuusstteerriittyy..iinndddd 55 1144--0011--1133 1155::5566::3311 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 SSoocciiaall CCoonncceerrttaattiioonn iinn TTiimmeess ooff AAuusstteerriittyy..iinndddd 66 1144--0011--1133 1155::5566::3311 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 SSoocciiaall CCoonncceerrttaattiioonn iinn TTiimmeess ooff AAuusstteerriittyy..iinndddd 77 1144--0011--1133 1155::5566::3311 SSoocciiaall CCoonncceerrttaattiioonn iinn TTiimmeess ooff AAuusstteerriittyy..iinndddd 88 1144--0011--1133 1155::5566::3311 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) SSoocciiaall CCoonncceerrttaattiioonn iinn TTiimmeess ooff AAuusstteerriittyy..iinndddd 99 1144--0011--1133 1155::5566::3311
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