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The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: American Political Institutions and Organized Labor's Legislative Influence Since World War II |
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Abstract:
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This paper counters American exceptionalist arguments about the weakness of the labor movement in the United States based on cultural and economic explanations and instead argues that American political institutions have constrained labor's political power. Political institutions that protect political minorities such as the Senate which over-represents rural populations and under-represents urban populations, the Senate filibuster which requires a super-majority to pass controversial legislation, the presidential veto which also requires a super-majority for Congress to override, and rules and procedures in the House favoring conservative interests have historically restricted the ability of organized labor to pass its legislative agenda to expand the size and protections of the welfare state. Although American labor has shared the social democratic agenda of many European labor movements in the post-WWII period, the fragmentation and institutional bias towards the status quo in the American political system have limited organized labor's legislative successes to incremental change.
As union density has declined, many scholars have argued that labor has become increasingly irrelevant in the public policy process. Yet the same institutional protections for political minorities that once benefited labor's political opponents now benefit organized labor. In addition labor had benefited from institutional changes it pushed for such as the enfranchisement of African-Americans and congressional reforms that reduced the power of conservative, Southern Democrats in the policy-making process over the last two decades. As a result organized labor continues to exercise a level of political influence very similar to that exercised in the forties when organized labor represented a much larger percentage of the workforce. Labor has been able to protect the legislative gains it made in the past and continues to put initiatives for incremental expansion of the welfare and regulatory state on the political agenda. The paper focuses particularly on the areas of employment policy, labor law, and health care reform. |
Most Common Document Word Stems:
labor (138), polit (116), legisl (88), american (53), organ (49), state (43), institut (42), senat (38), power (38), reform (32), agenda (31), movement (31), system (29), committe (28), bill (27), interest (24), one (24), chapter (23), process (23), major (23), fragment (21), |
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Association:
Name: American Political Science Association
URL: http://www.apsanet.org
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Citation:
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MLA Citation:
| Roof, Tracy. "The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: American Political Institutions and Organized Labor's Legislative Influence Since World War II" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston Marriott Copley Place, Sheraton Boston & Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts, Aug 28, 2002 <Not Available>. 2008-10-10 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p66456_index.html> |
APA Citation:
| Roof, T. , 2002-08-28 "The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: American Political Institutions and Organized Labor's Legislative Influence Since World War II" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston Marriott Copley Place, Sheraton Boston & Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts Online <.PDF>. 2008-10-10 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p66456_index.html |
Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper counters American exceptionalist arguments about the weakness of the labor movement in the United States based on cultural and economic explanations and instead argues that American political institutions have constrained labor's political power. Political institutions that protect political minorities such as the Senate which over-represents rural populations and under-represents urban populations, the Senate filibuster which requires a super-majority to pass controversial legislation, the presidential veto which also requires a super-majority for Congress to override, and rules and procedures in the House favoring conservative interests have historically restricted the ability of organized labor to pass its legislative agenda to expand the size and protections of the welfare state. Although American labor has shared the social democratic agenda of many European labor movements in the post-WWII period, the fragmentation and institutional bias towards the status quo in the American political system have limited organized labor's legislative successes to incremental change.
As union density has declined, many scholars have argued that labor has become increasingly irrelevant in the public policy process. Yet the same institutional protections for political minorities that once benefited labor's political opponents now benefit organized labor. In addition labor had benefited from institutional changes it pushed for such as the enfranchisement of African-Americans and congressional reforms that reduced the power of conservative, Southern Democrats in the policy-making process over the last two decades. As a result organized labor continues to exercise a level of political influence very similar to that exercised in the forties when organized labor represented a much larger percentage of the workforce. Labor has been able to protect the legislative gains it made in the past and continues to put initiatives for incremental expansion of the welfare and regulatory state on the political agenda. The paper focuses particularly on the areas of employment policy, labor law, and health care reform. |
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| Document Type: |
.pdf |
| Page count: |
22 |
| Word count: |
6595 |
| Text sample: |
| "The weakness of pressure from the left is one of the main reasons that the United States has less ambitious domestic programs and a smaller public sector than is found in other industrialized countries... Of course there is heavy union involvement in Ame rican politics. But compared to European unions which have been intimately tied to social democratic parties and very much bound up with the concept of class struggle both politically and economically American labor activity has been |
| congressional committee led by conservatives or met a filibuster in the Senate. Labor has then retreated to propose more incremental reform or to wait for the next election to bring larger liberal majorities to Congress. During Republican administrations laborbacked legislation has often been vetoed or gutted by Congress to avoid a veto. In the few years when the Democrats have controlled the presidency and the Republicans have controlled Congress (19471948 and 19942000) labor has been unable to push much |
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