The state and union growth: An examination of the political impact of union development in Britain and France, 1885-1975

Recently, the question of what accounts for different mobilization strategies of trade unions has arisen in the literature (Stephens 1991). This dissertation attempts to attribute partial causality to the state by conducting a longitudinal investigation of the relationship between state actions as reflected in the passage of major labor laws and union power in Britain and France. The present argument challenges past analyses by contending that the power of industrial union movements to obtain resources (whether from the state or employers) is reciprocally influenced by prior state orientations towards its mobilized policy demands. For instance, political successes and failures of mobilized labor efforts affect its capacity to (a) garner the participation of both unionized and nonunionized labor constituents for remobilization, and (b) install left parties in power.;The data for this study have been largely collected with grants from the National Science Foundation. Analytically, it employs, both, an interrupted and noninterrupted, time-series design. Econometric modelling is used to control for serial correlation.;The findings reveal that the effect of state enactment of labor legislation in Britain is significant over the entire time series. This effect remains even when controlling for the business-cycle and overall growth in the economy. France, on the other hand, yielded results which were significant though far more restricted with regard to periods of effect. In the pre-World War II period, labor strikes were more influential on union growth than state acts. In the post-World War II period, however, state acts significantly affect union mobilization. This effect is evidenced even with the institutionalization of the French welfare state.