Book Reviews
Abstract
BOOK REVIEWS aspects of the breakdown of the 'Keynesian consensus', expanding on the alternative possibilities of 'neo-liberal' and 'neo-statist' responses outlined in the introduction. The actual patterns observed in Britain, Italy and West Germany require more refined concep- tualisation, and these chapters are intended to serve this purpose. In Britain, trade unions have been weakened considerably, and employers have been able to pursue a wide variety of strategies at workplace level. In Italy, the market weakness of trade unions has been offset to some extent by their continuing importance in processes of political decision-making. The German unions' tradition of cooperative involvement in modernisation processes ensures greater continuity in capital-labour relations, although high levels of unemploymnt and the strength of employers' organisation pre- sent new problems of strategy for the trade unions. The chapters in this comparative section, however, suffer from their need to be brief and general in scope. The most interesting issues are dealt with summarily since they are treated at greater length in the country-specific sections, yet the conceptual categories employed are broad and thus resemble ad hoc formulations rather than the products of systematic investigation. As Hyman and Crouch argue, a great deal of conceptual