Policy Concertation and Social Partnership in Western Europe ― Lessons for the Twenty-First Century

In their introduction to 23 contributed chapters, Berger (history, U. of Glamorgan) and Compston (European studies, Cardiff U.) define policy concertation as "the codetermination of public policy by means of agreements struck between governments, employers, and trade unions." To account for the varying incidence of such pluralistic policy-making in ten Western democracies, European historians and social scientists go beyond examining the braking effect of market influences to consider neglected alternative explanations such as that of social partnership. These study results are then applied in comparative analyses identifying major determinants of policy concertation in Western Europe as a whole. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Hugh Compston is Lecturer in European Politics in the School of European Studies, Cardiff University.