From Corporatism to Polarisation: Elements of the Development of Dutch Industrial Relations

Abstract

One of the most important functional requirements of capitalist industrial relations is the incorporation of the main working-class organisations — the trade unions —in order to prevent the outbreak of wide conflicts which would threaten stability. This process has developed very successfully in the Netherlands. Post-war union leaders have seen themselves as sharing responsibility for the effective functioning of the system, though this should not be seen as an automatic and one-directional process. A number of conditions needs to be fulfilled if incorporation is to take place: incorporation of the work-force: in the early post-war years there was fear of unemployment and poverty but thereafter the growth of the welfare state provided a new legitimacy; ideological integration of the union movement: the ‘economism’ of trade unionism, which separated it from the wider labour movement, was indicated by the cultural embourgeoisement of the unions and by their separation from politics; control over the membership: this was secured by centralisation and bureaucratisation within individual unions and the federations; control over workers in general: this was secured by the monopolisation of representation by the so-called ‘responsible’ unions. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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