European integration has profound effects on national systems of industrial relations. To date, most empirical research has addressed the role of unions and organized labour; there has been far less attention paid to the impact of Europeanization on the strategic outlook and representational activities of organized business interests. This article draws on a survey of Dutch trade and employers' associations to argue that such organizations are in the process of adjusting their external affiliations to the demands of effective agitation in a multilevel governance system. However, the national level remains the most important focal point in the representational strategies of business associations.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ágh, A.
(1996) `The Europeanization of the ECE Business Interest Associations: The Models in Western Europe and the European Union', in A. Ágh and I. Ilonszki (eds) Parliaments and Organized Interests: The Second Steps, pp. 79-91. Budapest: Hungarian Centre for Democracy Studies Foundation.
2.
Becker, U.
(2000) `Welfare State Developments and Employment in the Netherlands in Comparative Perspective', Journal of European Social Policy10(3): 219-239.
3.
Bennett, R.J.
, ed. (1997a) Trade Associations in Britain and Germany: Responding to Internationalisation and the EU. London: Anglo-German Foundation.
4.
Bennett, R.J.
(1997b) `The Impact of European Economic Integration on Business Associations: The UK Case', West European Politics20(3): 61-90.
5.
Börzel, T.A.
(1999) `Towards Convergence in Europe? Institutional Adaptation to Europeanisation in Germany and Spain', Journal of Common Market Studies39(4): 573-596.
6.
Börzel, T.A.
and Risse, T. (2000) `When Europe Hits Home: Europeanization and Domestic Change', European Integration Online Papers (EIOP)4(15): 1-11.
7.
Bouwen, P.
(2000) Corporate Lobbying in the European Union: Towards a Theory of Access. Working Paper SPS 2001/05. Florence: European University Institute.
8.
Coen, D.
(1998) `The European Business Interest and the Nation State: Large Firm Lobbying in the European Union and Member States', Journal of Public Policy18(1): 75-100.
9.
Crouch, C.
(1995a) `Exit or Voice: Two Paradigms for European Industrial Relations after the Keynesian Welfare State', European Journal of Industrial Relations1(1): 63-82.
10.
Crouch, C.
(1995b) `Reconstructing Corporatism? Organized Decentralization and other Paradoxes', in C. Crouch and F. Traxler (eds) Organized Industrial Relations: What Future?, pp. 311-330. Aldershot: Avebury.
11.
De Kam, F.
, Pommer, E., Weisbeek, J., Wiebrens, C. (1988) `Economic Crisis and its Aftermath: The Reform of Social Security in the Netherlands 1984-1986', in J-P. Jallade (ed.) The Crisis of Distribution in European Welfare States, pp. 185-220. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
12.
De Vries, M.S.
(2000) `The Rise and Fall of Decentralization: A Comparative Analysis of Arguments and Practices in European Countries', European Journal of Political Research38(2): 193-224.
13.
Ebbinghaus, B.
and Hassel, A. (1999) Striking Deals: Concertation in the Reform of Continental European Welfare States, Discussion Paper 99/3. Cologne: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
14.
Ebbinghaus, B.
and Visser, J. (2000) Trade Unions in Western Europe Since 1945. London: Macmillan.
15.
Eising, R.
and Kohler-Koch, B. (1994) `Inflation und Zerfaserung. Trends der Interessenvermittlung in der Europäischen Gemeinschaft', in W. Streeck (ed.) Staat und Verbände, Politische Vierteljahresschrift - Sonderheft 25, pp. 175-206. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
16.
Falkner, G.
(1997) `Corporatist Governance and Europeanisation: No Future in the Multi-Level Game?', Current Politics and Economics of Europe8(4): 387-412.
17.
Falkner, G.
(2000) `The Council or the Social Partners? EC Social Policy between Diplomacy and Collective Bargaining', Journal of European Public Policy7(5): 705-724.
18.
Gill, C.
and Krieger, H. (2000) `Recent Survey Evidence on Participation in Europe: Towards a European Model?', European Journal of Industrial Relations6(1): 109-132.
19.
Gollbach, J.
and Schulten, T. (2000) `Cross-Border Collective Bargaining Networks in Europe', European Journal of Industrial Relations6(2): 161-179.
20.
Greenwood, J.
(1997) Representing Interests in the European Union. Basingstoke: MacMillan.
21.
Hemerijck, A.
(1995) `Corporatist Immobility in The Netherlands', in C. Crouch and F. Traxler (eds) Organized Industrial Relations in Europe: What Future?, pp. 183-226. Aldershot: Avebury.
22.
Jacobi, O.
, Keller, B. and Müller-Jentsch, W. (1992) `Germany: Codetermining the Future', in A. Ferner and R. Hyman (eds) Industrial Relations in the New Europe, pp. 218-269. Oxford: Blackwell.
23.
Knill, C.
and Lehmkuhl, D. (1999) `How Europe Matters. Different Mechanisms of Europeanization', European Integration Online Papers (EIOP)3(7): 1-11.
24.
Kohler-Koch, B.
(1992) `Interessen und Integration. Die Rolle organisierter Interessen im westeuropäischen Integrationsprozeß', in M. Kreile (ed.) Die Integration Europas, pp. 81-119. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
25.
Kohler-Koch, B.
and Quittkat, C. (1999) Intermediation of Interests in the European Union, Working Paper 9/1999. Mannheim: Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung.
26.
Lewis, J.
(1998) The Institutional Problem-Solving Capacities of the Council: The Committee of Permanent Representatives and the Methods of the Community, Discussion Paper 98/1. Cologne: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
27.
Radaelli, C.M.
(2000) `Wither Europeanization? Concept Stretching and Substantive Change', European Integration Online Papers (EIOP)4(8): 1-27.
28.
Scharpf, F.W.
(1997) Games Real Actors Play, Actor-Centered Institutionalism in Policy Research. Boulder and Oxford: Westview Press.
29.
Schmitter, P.C.
and Streeck, W. (1999) The Organization of Business Interests: Studying the Associative Action of Business in Advanced Industrial Societies, Discussion Paper 99/1. Cologne: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
30.
Streeck, W.
(1998) The Internationalization of Industrial Relations in Europe: Prospects and Problems, Discussion Paper 98/2. Cologne: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
31.
Streeck, W.
and Schmitter, P.C. (1994) `From National Corporatism to Transnational Pluralism: Organized Interests in the European Single Market', in V. Eichener and H. Voelzkow (eds) Europüische Integration und verbandliche Interessenvermittlung, pp. 181-215. Marburg: Metropolis.
32.
Traxler, F.
(1995) `Two Logics of Collective Action in Industrial Relations?', in C. Crouch and F. Traxler (eds) Organized Industrial Relations: What Future?, pp. 23-44. Aldershot: Avebury.
33.
Turner, L.
(1996) `The Europeanization of Labour: Structure Before Action', European Journal of Industrial Relations2(3): 325-344.
34.
Vatta, A.
(1999) `Employer's Organizations and Concertation: Internal Dynamics and Institutional Influence', European Journal of Industrial Relations5(3): 245-264.
35.
Visser, J.
(1992) `The Netherlands, The End of an Era and the End of a System', in R. Hyman and A. Ferner (eds) Industrial Relations in the New Europe, pp. 323-356. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
36.
Visser, J.
and Hemerijck, A. (1997) `A Dutch Miracle', Job Growth, Welfare Reform and Corporatism in the Netherlands. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
