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431 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vii (1977)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0431 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE In the United States, the concept of industrial democracy is largely asso- ciated with the institution of collective bargaining. Industrial democracy is regarded as achieved whenever strong and independent unions gain the right to share effectively with management in making the basic substantive and procedural rules that determine the employment relationship. Participation occurs not only through the negotiations leading to the conclu- sion of a collective agreement but also through the continuing role of the union in administering the agreement during its lifetime. Until recently this interpretation was also current in Great Britain, and it would be fair to say that even now both the American and the British systems of industrial relations, with their emphasis on adversary collective bargaining, are close reflections of this view of industrial democracy. In most of Western Europe, however, and in a number of other countries industrial democracy and its companion terms, such as worker participation in management, have acquired quite different meanings. Industrial democracy there refers often, though not always, to various schemes de- signed to associate employees or institutions representative of employee interests more closely with the internal decision-making process in the units constituting the private or public sectors of the economy. Without abandoning collective bargaining or even demoting it to a subordinate position, industrial democracy in these countries is conceived of as a means of direct employee access to the policy-making and operating levels of in- dividual enterprises, especially the larger ones. The aim is to transform, or to reform, long established patterns of authority and power in industry by granting to employees a degree of influence over all vital affairs of the enter- prise which more nearly approximates that of employers, shareholders, and their representatives in management. It is revealing of this meaning that in France the term in current usage is not industrial democracy but the reform of the enterprise, while in Germany a principal component of industrial democracy is known as codetermination (Mitbestimmung), that is, employee codetermination in the management of the enterprise. The prevailing meaning of industrial democracy, however, is by no means exhaustive of the conceptual and terminological varieties. In an increasing number of countries, the emphasis on employee participation in decision making is being extended by schemes intended to achieve employee partici- pation in the ownership of industrial capital. As in the case of shared decision making, there are substantial differences between the several plans to achieve employee participation in ownership, with some plans envisag- ing a far-reaching redistribution of wealth and, thus, also of power. It is entirely conceivable that the long-term consequences of capital-sharing plans, or at least of the more sweeping ones, will be even greater in terms of ultimate employee and union control over economic policy making than the introduction of new forms of shared decision making in industry. Still another meaning of industrial democracy refers to rather wide- spread efforts to restructure the organization of work so as to enhance its attractiveness or quality. The link between industrial democracy and what is sometimes referred to as the humanization of the work environment con- sists of attempts to confer on the individual worker, or a particular work vii

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