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Book Review: Politics, Government, and Industrial Relations: Wage-Fixing: Stagflation, Volume 1

been toward greater restrictions on unions and somewhat looser standards for employers. St. Antoine does not hesitate to take strong critical positions on many issues, thus contributing a stimulating discussion. Complementing the Freeman and Medoff piece and competing for top billing is an excellent chapter by Andrew Thomson of the University of Glasgow. Entitled "A View From Abroad," its purpose is to compare developments in the industrial relations systems of the U.S. and Western Europe over the 195080 period. Several aspects of each system are contrasted, including unions, employers, bargaining, and law. Most fundamentally, however, Thomson addresses what must be the most basic question posed by the recent history of industrial relations, namely, what accounts for the continually declining strength of unionism in the United States, as reflected not only in the failure to organize new employees, but also in the losing of more and more decertification elections. Thomnson offers several partial answers to this question: a more antagonistic legal framework, more sophisticated employer tactics, and demographic changes. However, he repeatedly cites a much more fundamental reason, namely, that "the cultural drives which encourage collectivist and group action in other countries seem in the United States to be replaced by a pervasive individualism" (p. 317). Barring some major external pressures such as those prevalent during the 1930s, unionized workers are thus too selfcentered to organize into a cohesive political force; and the growing numbers of nonunion workers do not perceive unionism as a necessary or desirable institution to improve their position. One might, of course, press this point even further by asking from whence this "pervasive individualism" arose. But whatever its origins, Thomson's point that it underlies the entire spectrum of declining union influence in the United States is, in my judgment, a valid and crucial one. Two additional chapters complete the volume: "Social Issues in Collective Bargaining" by Phyllis A. Wallace and James W. Driscoll; and "Industrial Conflict" by Peter Feuille and Hoyt N. Wheeler. Both studies note (as does St. Antoine) the weakening of traditional collective bargaining caused by legislative and judicial intervention in such areas as equal employment, safety and health, and grievance arbitration, as well as by expanding quality-of-work-life programs. Wallace and Driscoll believe that these interventions pose a serious threat to "the continued viability of collective bargaining," whereas Feuille and Wheeler consider them to have "done little to narrow the scope of actual collective bargaining." The latter view seems much closer to the truth. In all, the perspective that emerges from these essays is one of a system of industrial relations facing increasing difficulties. As the editors point out in a brief summary chapter, it would certainly be premature to predict the demise of the system, yet myopic to deny its weaknesses. In any case, the volume contributes greatly to an understanding of the issues involved and deserves careful reading by everyone concerned with the industrial relations field. Harold M. Levinson Professor Department of Economics University of Michigan