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This book explores the changing role of trade unions as products of, and agents for, democracy. Despite conventionally being portrayed as politically marginalised and in terminal decline, trade unions continue to represent a significant component of society within most industrialised countries and have demonstrated a capacity for revival and renewal in the face of difficult corcumstances. It brings together a distinguished panel of leading and emerging scholars in the field, and provides a critical assessment of the current role of trade unions in society, their capacity to impact on state policies in such a manner as to ensure greater accountability and fairness, and the nature and extent of internal representative democracy within the labour movement. This volume will be of interest to students and academics in industrial relations, critical management studies, political studies and sociology.
Trade Unions and Democracy explores the role of trade unions as products of, and agents for, democracy. As civil society agents, unions may promote democracy within the wider society, especially in the case of authoritarian regimes or other rigid political systems, by acting as watchdogs and protecting hard-won democratic gains.Established democratic institutions in many advanced societies are facing new challenges. The problem with using trade unions for this purpose is that they remain locked in a cycle of political marginalization and decline. Beyond this, there are, ironically, serious questions about whether unions themselves internally function as democracies. Certainly there are tensi...
Migration in the Mediterranean region is a widely debated and much studied topic. This is due to the present refugee crisis, consequences of Arab revolutions, the proximity with emigration and transit countries, but also to the involvement of southern European countries and the mass arrival of migrants. The management of Border controls, migration, development, human trafficking, human rights and the clash or convergence of civilizations has generated a great deal of controversy and media attention. Migration in the Mediterranean offers a unique multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework, bringing together scholars from different subject areas. This book aims to address the f...
Does the European Union need closer fiscal integration, and in particular a stronger fiscal centre, to become more resilient to economic shocks? This book looks at the experience of 13 federal states to help inform the heated debate on this issue. It analyses in detail their practices in devolving responsibilities from the subnational to the central level, compares them to those of the European Union, and draws lessons for a possible future fiscal union in Europe. More specifically, this book tries to answer three sets of questions: What is the role of centralized fiscal policies in federations, and hence the size, features and functions of the central budget? What institutional arrangements...
The book explores how, to what extent and with what consequences the international crisis of 2007-2008 and the recession which followed have affected European SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in both the well established market economies of the old member countries and in the post-transformation new member countries, and what can be done at the institutional and political level to uphold them.
New Europe is a rhetorical term used by some analysts to describe European post-communist transition success stories. The term implies their recent return to European, or more precisely Western civilization, but suggests - given their (forced) communist detour - that there is no single Pan-European identity in the EU. This book examines the na
Recent developments in the global economy, such as the Greek budget crisis, have led to new focus on the role of Europe, and in particular on the countries in Europe’s south-eastern region. This new volume from a global set of contributors explores south-east Europe’s present and future direction, placing it in the context of the history of the region since the end of the Second World War. Through an exploration of Europe’s cultural and political economy, this volume argues that the south-east part of Europe is currently the most crucial component of Europe’s future development. The book charts the post-World War Two ‘evolution’ of the continent, taking in such key turning points...
Despite exporting more good and services than any other country in the world, economic growth in Germany has been slow through the nineties and the early twenty first century with low wage growth, rising unemployment and increasing public deficits. German unemployment was traditionally diagnosed as structural, neglecting macroeconomic causes of eco
In easily accessible language, this book analyses the impact of Economic and Monetary Union on Small and Medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe. This overarching and widely researched study explains in a jargon-free manner the mechanisms of EMU and it's likely effect on SMEs. The book then goes on to explain and examine the results of seven case