Collective Bargaining and Industrial Change: A Case of Disorganization? A Comparative Analysis of Eighteen OECD Countries

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Abstract
According to the ‘disorganization thesis’, industrial change – namely economic international iration and the expansion of the service sector – is expected to cause a shift from non-market governance institutions to the market. On the basis of a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis, this paper examines this assumption with regard to labour relations systems, using collective bargaining coverage as an indicator of a system's degree of organization. Disorganization would mean a negative association between industrial change and coverage, as well as a unidirectional decline in coverage over time. No evidence of this can be found. Instead, diversity and divergence prevail among countries. This is because the specific pattern of how bargaining is embedded in labour relations mediates the effects of industrial change. There is a divide between two distinct bargaining patterns: that is, an inclusive one with largely stable coverage, and an exclusive one which indeed recorded a decline in coverage. The paper concludes by discussing the future prospects for bargaining and die theoretical implications of these empirical findings.

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