The attitude of employers' organizations towards concertation results from the interaction of two main variables: the industrial structure and the institutional framework. The balance of power within the organizations between large and smaller firms, and the set of rules, legal provisions and representative bodies enforced in each country strongly influence the policy choices. Between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s different options were adopted in Sweden, Denmark and Austria. This article tries to explain the conduct of employers' organizations in these three countries, and suggests that incentives to concertation can derive from a careful management of constraints and choices related to the two variables.
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