Removing the Pluralist Blinders: Labor-Management Councils and Industrial Policy in the American States

Abstract

This article examines a pattern of public/private activity found in the United States that falls beyond the theoretical parameters of most interest group research. For nearly 15 years, labor-management councils have contributed to the making of industrial policy in several of the American states. Yet, labor-management councils have not received ample attention by interest group or public policy scholars. A preoccupation with pluralist theory, along with a mistreatment of corporatist theory, has contributed to this exclusion. Considering recent changes in the autonomy and capacity of American states, scholars need new theoretical approaches if they are to account for alternative patterns of interest group intermediation with the state, such as labor management councils. To highlight the significance of these alternative patterns of state/society intermediation, this article offers case studies of Pennsylvania's MILRJTE (Make Industry and Labor Right in Today's Economy) Council and Kentucky's Labor-Management Advisory Council using a simple policy process approach.