Impacts of Decentralisation – Erosion or Renewal? : The Decisive Link between Workplace Representation and Company Size in German and Danish Industrial Relations

摘要

"In recent decades Germany and Denmark have constituted survival areas for theclassical IR system in an era that has otherwise largely been characterised by the deregulation anddisorganisation of industrial relations. From the mid-1990s onwards, however, it has to varyingdegrees been possible to observe erosive tendencies in these hitherto sturdy fortresses of “organiseddecentralisation”. It is the main thesis of this article that the dualistic German system makesit more difficult for the German parties to adapt the bargaining system so that their overall coordinationcan be preserved even though the required decentralisation is introduced. This thesis isinvestigated through an extensive comparison of the drivers, contexts and outcomes of decentralisationin Danish and German industry over the last 10-15 years. The article concludes thatthe single-channel representation system and the more homogeneous composition of companysizes in Denmark are core explanations why Denmark exhibits fewer erosive trends than Germanyand more signs of renewal in the development towards multi-level regulation." (author's abstract)