This article analyses the linkage between trade unions and the US Democratic Party and the UK Labour Party in the twentieth century. A typology suited to longitudinal analysis of labour movement union-party linkages is proposed to help characterise and explain historical development of these two national movements through earlier types of linkage, into ‘New Labour’ and ‘New Democratic’ forms. The paper suggests that, from similar starting points, differences through time in the range of types of linkage in the two movements can be explained by a combination of factors of political economy and electoral strategy, a combination that today points towards weaker relationships.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlboG. (1994) ‘Competitive austerity and the impasse of capitalist employment policy’, in MilibandR.PanitchL. (eds), The Socialist Register 1994. (London, Merlin), pp. 144–170.
2.
AlboG.ZuegeA. (1999) ‘European capitalism today: Between the euro and the Third Way’, Monthly Review, July/August, 100–119.
3.
BernsteinA. (1997) ‘Labor's last laugh’, Business Week 2 June.
4.
BlairT. (1997) ‘Address to the TUC’, September.
5.
BowlesS.GordonD.WeisskopfT. (1990) Beyond the Wasteland (New York: Sharpe).
6.
CoatesD. (1980) Labour in Power? A Study of the Labour Government 1974–1979 (London: Longman).
7.
CoatesD. (1999) ‘Labour power and international competitiveness: A critique of ruling orthodoxies’, in PanitchL.LeysC. (eds), Global Capitalism Versus Democracy. (London: Merlin), 108–141.
8.
CoatesD. (2000) Models of Capitalism: Growth and Stagnation in the Modern Era (Cambridge: Polity).
9.
CrouchC.StreeckW. (1997) Political Economy of Modern Capitalism: Mapping Convergence and Diversity (London: Sage).
10.
DarkT. (1999) The Unions and the Democrats (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press).
11.
DubofskyM. (1994) The State and Labor in Modern America (Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press).
12.
DullesF. R.DubofskyM. (1984) Labor in America: A History (4th edition) (Arlington Heights, Illinois: Harlan Davidson).
13.
EbbinghausB. (1995) ‘The Siamese twins: Citizenship rights, cleavage formation, and party-union relations in western Europe’, International Review of Social History, 40 (Supplement 3), 51–89.
14.
GouldP. (1998) The Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers Saved the Labour Party (London: Little, Brown).
15.
GrossJ. A. (1981) The Reshaping of the National Labor Relations Board (Albany NY: New York: State University Press).
16.
HowellC. (1992) ‘Family or just good friends: The changing Labour Party-Trade Union relationship in Britain since 1979’, International Journal of Political Economy, 22:4, 17–35.
17.
HowellC. (1999) ‘Social democratic parties and trade unions: A rough framework for analysis’ (paper presented to the American Political Science Association, Atlanta, September 1999, unpublished).
18.
HowellC. (2000) ‘Constructing British industrial relations’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 2:2, 205–236.
19.
KitscheltH. (1994) The Transformation of European Social Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
20.
KotzM.MacDonoughD.ReichM. (1994) Social Structures of Accumulation: The Political Economy of Growth and Crisis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
21.
Labour Party (1959) Your Personal Guide to the Future Labour Offers You (London: Labour Party).
22.
Labour Research Department (1997) Trade Unions and Political Funding in Europe: A Report on the Financial and Other Links between Trade Unions and Political Parties. Commissioned by Michael Hindley MEP (London: Labour Research Department).
23.
LudlamS. (2001) ‘New Labour and the unions: The end of the contentious alliance?’, in LudlamS.SmithM. J. (eds), New Labour in Government. (Basingstoke: Macmillan).
24.
MandlesonP. (1998) ‘Address to the TUC’, September.
25.
McIlroyJ. (1998) ‘The enduring alliance? Trade Unions and the making of New Labour, 1994–1997’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 36:4, 537–564.
26.
MinkinL. (1992) The Contentious Alliance: The Trade Unions and the Labour Party (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).
27.
PivenF. F. (1991) ‘Structural constraints and party development’, in PivenF. F. (ed.), Labor Parties in Postindustrial Societies. (Cambridge: Polity).
28.
RadoshR. (1996) Divided They Fell: The Demise of the Democratic Party 1964–1996 (New York: Free).
29.
TaftP. (1964) Organized Labor in American History (New York: Harper and Row).
30.
ValenzualaJ. S. (1992) ‘Labour movements and political systems: Some variations’, in ReginiM. (ed.), The Future of Labour Movements. (London: Sage).
31.
WebberM.RigbyD. (1996) The Golden Age Illusion: Rethinking Postwar Capitalism (New York: Guildford).
