Conference on Organized labour
Responses to the Conference Paper
Dr. Jochen Tholen
University of Bremen, Germany
25 September 1998
I enclose a more abstract paper on "Europeanisation and the Impact on
Industrial Relations" for the above mentioned network. Empirical results related to that we will get in February 1999. I like to hear or read your comments.
The Concept of Europeanization and the Impact on the System of Industrial Relations
To be able to understand and assess the development of industrial relations in Europe in their relationship to the resp. national industrial relations, it is necessary, to be aware of the character of the European process of integration. This is the only way to make statements about future perspectives.
Starting with the different strands of the political science theory of integration, in which federalism and neo-functionalism in their different variations continue to play an important role, a further development of European integration, or if this doesn't succeed, a more or less intense dis-integration and return of nationalism in Europe, is prognosticated. Considering all the minute differences, these positions however have in common, that the European Union is reaching towards a final state, which it has not reached yet. Politically, this is combined with the demand for a United States of Europe or the creation of a political union.
Mainstream economic theories of integration refer to the approach of transaction costs and varieties of the theory of international trade. This means, the economy as such is the driving force towards an international interlacing, which, among others, is being hampered by state regulations. The latter one could lead to losses in social welfare. In this theoretical construction, the creation of a unified economic area becomes an aim to strive for, whereby though, a total globalization is being aimed at in principle. Integration thus becomes a result in the wake of economic progress and is also aiming at the final destination, the global free market.
A consequence of this view is the assumption, that, step by step, all essential areas, which up to now are being regulated on a national state level, are being (should be) shifted to the European level. Factors which stand opposite to this, such as the national or national state identity and the legitimacy of the resp. dominant political systems based on this, are considered as obstructions which are to be overcome. In reference to the industrial relations the questionis raising, how ultimately the unavoidable European system of industrial relations will be structured and which steps have to be taken to make it materialize. The present condition is being regarded as a transition, which will be overcome by the accelerating process of Europeanization and be elevated to a new qualitative level. In this regard often the question will be asked, which elements of resp. national models of industrial relations will prevail in Europe. Those discussions are related to theories of industrial relations, which regard industrial relations being influenced less by cultural and national peculiarities rather than by economic and technological inherent necessities.
Our understanding of industrial relations in Europe differs from these politically normative views and is linked to newer integration theory research. "The quintessence of the present state of research on the process of European integration is, that this process will probably never, certainly not in any relevant future, lead to a supranational state entity, which, similar to the post-war state order, would have the capability, to take out a social minimum from competition." (Streeck 1998, p.3). After the Second World War the increasing internationalization of the economy and the forming of the triad Northamerica, South-East Asia and Europe, did not lead to the creation of a new European state, but to a specific co-existence of national, intra-governmental and supranational regulation forms and authorities. Despite B tendencies integration, "there can be no mention of an increasing homogeneity of the national systems as a result of the Europeanization of politics. Altogether it can be determined, that the comminuting (Vergemeinschaftung, Ferdinand Toennies) leads to a multiformity of the political landscape in the member states and especially in those states, which have distinct national regulatory traditions, to an increased complexity" (Jachtenfuchs / Kohler-Koch 1996, p. 28).
The European Union gained its present shape especially by measures of „negative" integration. This means, that comminuting has been resulted less from measures of European homogeneity and the passing of the same European rules („positive" integration) for all countries, but primarily by dismantling of barriers. Along with this was the absolute dominance of economic fields of integration. "The result is a shift in the balance between the capitalist economy and a democratically legitimated policy, which developed in the post-war decades in the Western European social states" (Scharpf 1996, p. 110).
This development must be evaluated by considering the background of the more or less Bly formed political-strategical basic orientation of neo-liberalism of the member states. "The European integration, controlled by the national states, resulted, after Maastricht Treaty at the latest, in a vehicle of detachment of European capitalism from state regulations resp. the replacement of a national and state through an international and pre-state market régime, whom a transition to full statehood was denied by national states as well as by the 'markets'."(Streeck 1998, p. 5).
Thus, in the past years in Europe a multilevel system of state regulations has been formed, which is fundamentally different from the system of international relations in the first decades after the Second World War. Looking at the future development, it seems that neither a return to the encompassing responsibility of the national state nor a dissolution in a new European federal state is possible. Whereas the economic integration has proceeded a long way and has lead to irreversible structural changes in macro-economies of the member states, large state areas, esp. the social and labour policy fields are still predominantly nationally constituted. Because of the different levels of economy in the member states but also the different structures of these systems (which partly exist because of hundreds of years old traditions), it has to be assumed, that in the near future an interwoven side by side development of national and European regulations in very closely related fields will exist.
In so far the supposed regulation deficits of the Maastricht Treaty, which concentrates on the deepening of the economic integration and only contains marginal progress in the fields of political integration, are not just the result of a policy of neoliberal oriented governments, but are based on structural factors. For industrial relations this has considerable consequences, as because of the monetary union, the exchange rate mechanism as a considerable adjustment mechanism for balancing different economic developments in the member states will be eliminated. Therefore the burden of adjustment will be shifted to the state fiscal and structural policy (whose leeway again will be diminished by the monetary union) and to the collective agreements, industrial relations and social policy. The alternative would be, that the various developments in real economic adjustments, could result in rising mass unemployment for instance. Industrial relationswill therefore come under increasing pressure to change. The danger of wage dumping is evident.
If one follows this line of reasoning, the development of industrial relations in Europe will not be homogeneous in Europe. Union strategies, which implicitly or explicitly declare this to be the target, mustfail. A development is to be expected, in which the dominance of the national regulation level will be kept and variations willbe allowed, whereby a complementation of the various systems of industrial relations through European regulations as well as a change in the national systems themselves will take place. Politically and strategically the unions must find an answer to the question, how the principle of subsidiarity can be defined for the field of industrial relations. Following this policy, it is to decide, which regulatory contents should exclusivley be negotiated on the European level, how the national systems must be developed further, how the relationship between the levels should be organized, and which European regulations should be prevented innorder to maintain national regulations. In this context solutions of an integration with different speeds could make sense, as Klaus Busch (1997) has proposed in his "corridor model" for the social policy sector. This model implies a processual harmonization in specific sectors, whereby the adjustment achievements should be oriented towards relatively common and therefore easy to examine indicators. According to this member states would be grouped in countries with similar conditions.
Such an understanding of integration would have the result, that the concept of Europeanization cannot be understood as a continuous homogenization on the European level or the transfer of national regulatory authority to the European Union. Europeanization rather describes the formation of a new interlocking structure of political, economic and societal regulations, which compulsorily, must present itself specifically in each member state. The concept of Europeanization includes therefore always two dimensions:
1. The formation of European regulations in the course of negative as well as positive integration,
2. The specific new order of the regulatory levels in member states as interdependences between the national, supranational but also subnational regulatory level.
References:
Busch, Klaus (1997): Europäische Sozialpolitik - das Korridormodell, Osnabrück
Jachtenfuchs, Markus; Kohler-Koch, Beate (1996): Einleitung: Regieren im dynamischen Mehrebenensystem, in: Jachtenfuchs, Markus, Kohler-Koch, Beate: Europäische Integration
Scharpf, Fritz W. (1996): Politische Optionen im vollendeten Binnenmarkt, in: Jachtenfuchs, Markus; Kohler-Koch, Beate: Europäische Integration, Opladen
Streeck, Wolfgang (1998): Gewerkschaften zwischen Nationalstaat und Europäischer Union, in: - WSI.Mitteilungen Heft 1
|
