The issue of labour market organisation has probably gained momentum throughout the 1980s all the way into the current crisis and the constant levels of unemployment in Europe are fuelling this debate. With increasing inflation and the oil shocks of the 1970s it was proven that central institutions could no longer keep under their control such an interconnected world trade flow. Deregulation, championed in Europe by the British government of Thatcher, argued that state intervention and central organisation of the economy were inefficient and that it was preferable to leave market organisation to the ‘invisible hand’, market forces, which was considered to be more efficient. Nonetheless, this liberal conception of labour markets has yet to prove its theory whilst there are still specific cases of coordinated labour markets in Europe that have fared reasonably well in contrast to some extent. To deal with some of these issues, this essay will attempt in the first place to provide a general understanding of what should considered as a labour market, followed by what is usually understood as either a flexible or a rigid system of labour market. This shall be the foundation upon which the Swedish labour market will be re-examined to determine the extent of their rigidity, since it is considered as being the paradigm of a highly coordinated labour market, followed by an examination of general tendencies within a deregulated labour market. To conclude with, some remarks regarding economic performance such as unemployment levels will be briefly looked at to see whether there is an actual dichotomy between the style of labour market and economic performance in Europe. Note that some terms are used interchangeably in this essay, such as coo...
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...adopt a fully-fledged liberalisation of labour markets in the light of the social upheaval it may cause.
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Topic and Specific Case: The topic that I have chosen is the impact that the shift to neoliberal government policies has had on workers in Canada. I have chosen to explore this topic through looking at the restructuring of unemployment insurance in the 1990’s neoliberal era when it came to be called employment insurance (McBride, 2005, pg. 90).
[3] "Industrial Metamorphosis." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited, 01 Oct. 2005. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. .
In this paper, I focused on the major differences between the US and EU regulations of the following labor issues:
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... should device ways of eliminating the causes of global financial crisis so that the effects of this crisis may not be experienced again in the world.
Dinan, D (2010): Ever Closer Union. An Introduction to European Integration (4th ed.) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
...th the classical view that wages would drop to prohibit unemployment because of Trade Unions, and claim that according this view unemployment would enter a vicious spiral. The implications of this are that Modern liberal economics advocates the state managing the economy and that logically the state has a role to play in helping people achieve the self-fulfillment that liberalism works towards. This is consistent with the Modern liberal view of freedom effectively as an ‘enabling process’.
Senior, Nello Susan. "Chapters:4,15." The European Union: Economics, Policies and History. London: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
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The laws and regulations surrounding Industrial Relations since the 1900’s have, at each reform, placed tighter constraints on the amount of power unions are able to exert. The reforms have also radically increased managerial prerogative, through an increased use of individual bargaining, contracts and restrictions imposed on unions (Bray and Waring, 2006). Bray and W...
Dunlop(1958) argues that in the system of industrial relations, there are 3 major components in the system. There are the actors, the context and the common ideology. The actors consist of the employers and their organizations and employees and, if present, the groups that represent them and the state or government agencies. The second major component, the context, is the situation or environment that influences any decision or activity, this is usually technology, market constraints or distribution of power in the wider society. The common ideology, under which the purpose of this essay falls, can be seen as a binding idea or theory which the actors share for the purpose of stability in the system. Under the common ideology component, there are various conflicting theories or frames of reference.
There are many different approaches and theories regarding industrial relations nowadays. In order to mount an opinion on which is the ‘best’ or most appropriate theory of industrial relations, each theory will have to be analyzed. The three most prevalent theories of industrial relations which exist are The Unitarist theory, The Pluralist theory and The Marxist theory. Each offers a particular perception of workplace relations and will therefore interpret such events as workplace conflict, the role of trade unions and job regulation very differently. I will examine each of these theories in turn and then formulate my own opinion regarding which is the ‘best’ or most appropriate theory.