The Puzzle of Strikes
Class and State Strategies in Postwar Italy
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This book focuses on the strategic interaction of workers, employers and the state in postwar Italian strikes.This book is an attempt to explain the temporal movement of postwar Italian strikes: why and when strikes go up or down and what the strategies of the main actors involved are. In many ways, the book is unique in the social sciences. First, it takes an inductive approach. Rather than start with theories and then use available empirical evidence to test the explanatory power of the theories, the book starts with date. Second, the book is based on a variety of empirical evidence: statist...
This book focuses on the strategic interaction of workers, employers and the state in postwar Italian strikes.
This book is an attempt to explain the temporal movement of postwar Italian strikes: why and when strikes go up or down and what the strategies of the main actors involved are. In many ways, the book is unique in the social sciences. First, it takes an inductive approach. Rather than start with theories and then use available empirical evidence to test the explanatory power of the theories, the book starts with date. Second, the book is based on a variety of empirical evidence: statistical, historical, ethnographic and survey material. Third, the book considers the strategies of all the actors involved: workers, employers, the state and the radical left. Finally, the book does not simply explain the movement of strikes; more broadly, it attempts to show how strikes, in their turn, deeply affect the economic, institutional and political spheres of society.
Review quote:
"...worth reading even for nonspecialists....Franzosi succeeds in maintaining the reader's interest and carrying his argument....a brilliant work, and it provides far more pleasant reading than most other works on similar subjects."
Industrial and Labor Relations Review
"...[an] interesting book....likely to fully satisfy historians."
Labor History
"...a vast and sprawling book, that challenges much of the existing strike literature and ought to become a major reference point in the literature of the future....Franzosi has written one of the most important analyses of strikes to have appeared for some time."
Industrial Relations Journal
"...an extremely interesting and provocative book....a thorough and thoughtful piece of empirical work."
Political Science Quarterly
"One of the impressive aspects of this work by Roberto Franzosi is that, although the volume includes so much, these threads of many colors are ultimately woven together skillfully into a graceful pattern that tells the story of why workers acted collectively and militantly in postwar Italy; the story is quite complex. ... In both the quantitative and the qualitative analyses, little is left unexplained."
American Journal of Sociology
"Seldom does such a lucid and honest study appear... the book is a refreshing discussion of theory and the difficulties of drawing conclusions from social statistics. It is an important book that deserves a general readership beyond experts, and it could be particularly useful for courses dealing with methodology and social science."
Choice
"In general, this book is well researched and Franzosi demostrates an ability to marshal the appropriate empirical referents for the concepts of the theoretical perspectives he discusses....Those whose research interests include class conflict, industrial disputes and the institutional context of economic development will find Franzosi's book indispensable to their research and teaching."
Anthony C. Masi,Journal of Modern Italian Studies
"...this is the best book on cross-temporal patterns in national-level strikes since Shorter and Tilly's excellent work on France, published over two decades ago. It will resonate well beyond the obvious appeal to those interested generally instrikes or more specifically in postwar Italian political economy.
Larry W. Isaac, Contemporary Sociology
Table of contents:
List of tables, figures and equations; Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. The puzzle box; 2. Labor-market conditions and bargaining power; 3. When do workers strike? How the economy matters; 4. Organizational resources and collective action; 5. The structure of collective bargaining; 6. Class power, politics and conflict; 7. Mobilization processes: the 1969 autunno caldo; 8. Countermobilization processes: reactions by the state and employers to strike waves; Epilogue; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
This book is an attempt to explain the temporal movement of postwar Italian strikes: why and when strikes go up or down and what the strategies of the main actors involved are. In many ways, the book is unique in the social sciences. First, it takes an inductive approach. Rather than start with theories and then use available empirical evidence to test the explanatory power of the theories, the book starts with date. Second, the book is based on a variety of empirical evidence: statistical, historical, ethnographic and survey material. Third, the book considers the strategies of all the actors involved: workers, employers, the state and the radical left. Finally, the book does not simply explain the movement of strikes; more broadly, it attempts to show how strikes, in their turn, deeply affect the economic, institutional and political spheres of society.
Review quote:
"...worth reading even for nonspecialists....Franzosi succeeds in maintaining the reader's interest and carrying his argument....a brilliant work, and it provides far more pleasant reading than most other works on similar subjects."
Industrial and Labor Relations Review
"...[an] interesting book....likely to fully satisfy historians."
Labor History
"...a vast and sprawling book, that challenges much of the existing strike literature and ought to become a major reference point in the literature of the future....Franzosi has written one of the most important analyses of strikes to have appeared for some time."
Industrial Relations Journal
"...an extremely interesting and provocative book....a thorough and thoughtful piece of empirical work."
Political Science Quarterly
"One of the impressive aspects of this work by Roberto Franzosi is that, although the volume includes so much, these threads of many colors are ultimately woven together skillfully into a graceful pattern that tells the story of why workers acted collectively and militantly in postwar Italy; the story is quite complex. ... In both the quantitative and the qualitative analyses, little is left unexplained."
American Journal of Sociology
"Seldom does such a lucid and honest study appear... the book is a refreshing discussion of theory and the difficulties of drawing conclusions from social statistics. It is an important book that deserves a general readership beyond experts, and it could be particularly useful for courses dealing with methodology and social science."
Choice
"In general, this book is well researched and Franzosi demostrates an ability to marshal the appropriate empirical referents for the concepts of the theoretical perspectives he discusses....Those whose research interests include class conflict, industrial disputes and the institutional context of economic development will find Franzosi's book indispensable to their research and teaching."
Anthony C. Masi,Journal of Modern Italian Studies
"...this is the best book on cross-temporal patterns in national-level strikes since Shorter and Tilly's excellent work on France, published over two decades ago. It will resonate well beyond the obvious appeal to those interested generally instrikes or more specifically in postwar Italian political economy.
Larry W. Isaac, Contemporary Sociology
Table of contents:
List of tables, figures and equations; Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. The puzzle box; 2. Labor-market conditions and bargaining power; 3. When do workers strike? How the economy matters; 4. Organizational resources and collective action; 5. The structure of collective bargaining; 6. Class power, politics and conflict; 7. Mobilization processes: the 1969 autunno caldo; 8. Countermobilization processes: reactions by the state and employers to strike waves; Epilogue; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Index.