Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation

Reviewed by: Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations since the 1970s by Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell Mathieu Dupuis Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell, Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation: European Industrial Relations since the 1970s (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2017) Although the debate on convergence and divergence is a traditional one in the field of employment relations (er), a certain consensus has emerged in past years over the diversity of advanced capitalist economies. er scholars tend to assume that their key societal, political, and economic features have endured, even in the latest stage of capitalism which is characterized by globalization, trade internationalization, and the rise of finance as a growth-model. In that vein, varieties of capitalism or business system approaches tend to use institutions as mediator variables in explaining differences in the performance of capitalist systems and to argue for the resilience and divergence of national systems from a historical and comparative point of view. Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation by Lucio Baccaro and Chris Howell aims to challenge this consensus by arguing that, rather than producing divergence, industrial relations (ir) institutions were liberalized and are following a common neoliberal trajectory in Western European countries. By analysing the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden, the authors show that this transformation has been observed in the expansion of employer discretion in three spheres: wage determination, personnel management and work organization, and hiring and firing procedures. Theoretically, Baccaro and Howell present the classical approach of comparative political economy, which presumes that institutions mediate common economic pressures, distribute power amongst actors, and offer solutions to coordination problems in market economies. The authors oppose this idea of divergence by arguing that institutions can change towards a common trajectory while remaining "allomorphic." (14) In fact, the plasticity and malleability of institutions is central and helps us to conceptualize how different sets of rules can be transformed or by-passed, bringing us towards a common trajectory. In these processes, the state has taken an active role in expanding employers' discretion. The authors mobilize Walter Korpi's power resource theory, arguing that changes in these resources are likely to impact the choices made by actors. Furthermore, referring to the École de la Régulation, Baccaro and Howell argue that the weakening of ir institutions undermined the Fordist growth regime and that the type of capitalism that has emerged favours the flexibilization of employment relations. After a presentation of quantitative data that supports the liberalization argument, the five countries are analysed successively. [End Page 315] In the 1970s, the UK was characterized by "collective regulation" through corporatism in social and economic policy, wage determination by formal and informal mechanisms, work organization subject to joint regulation, and public policy supported by the idea of collective regulation. Following the election of the Conservative government in 1979, the government adopted a "decollectivisation" strategy and brought the country towards a law-oriented model. This model has been characterized by the individualization of employment relations in which trade unions and collective bargaining had a limited role leading to a strong unitarian vision of ir and the rise of employer discretion. France in the 1970s was characterized by a high level of state regulation due to oppositional trade union structures and strong industry-level bargaining with the extension of collective agreements by the state. This kept employer discretion over working conditions low, particularly in their ability to fire workers. The state was the key obstacle to greater flexibility. Several governments in the 1980s have introduced successful reforms. This led to the creation of new institutions or the mutation of existing institutions, particularly at the firm level. This also led to the decentralization of the system and gave more power to non-union channels of representation at the company-level. Institutions have been transformed and new ones have been created. As for Germany, with encompassing institutions, the country once represented the archetype of the coordinated model of capitalism. These institutions were characterized by strong voice rights in the workplace but with a high acceptance of flexibility, strong vocational training, and bargaining coverage at the sectoral level. The change towards an export-led model set the stage for liberalization and can be explained by

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