Causes and Consequences of Variation in the Political Mobilization of Labor
This project is concerned with the emergence and the implications of national variation in labor politics across the industrializing societies of the late 19th and early 20th century. A mid-range explanation for varying trajectories of labor politics and their respective effects on regime dynamics is connected to a general theoretical concern for the conditions under which the rational evaluation of institutional constraints trumps other determinants of political choice. The goal of this approach is to overcome the limitations of prior exclusively deterministic and structural theories by developing a systematic account for the interaction between elite agency and a constraining environment. Historical institutional analysis is thus enriched through an assessment of individual level cognition and behavior. A qualitative-quantitative analysis for a comprehensive set of 20 countries employs socio-economic and electoral data, legal documents, party statutes, and a wide variety of programmatic and personal statements by labor elites.
This project has resulted in a number of publications and ongoing publication plans: an article entitled Social Democratic Party Formation and National Variation in Labor Politics is forthcoming in Comparative Politics, while the journal manuscript Exceptional yet predictable. The failure of American socialism as the rational response of labor elites to external constraints is currently under review. Several additional publications are currently near completion: a comprehensive book manuscript on the emergence of national variation in labor politics, an article explaining cross-national differences in social democratic mobilization success, and an article on the effects of variation in labor inclusion on interwar regime types.
Mittelgeber
ohne Mittelgeber
Laufzeit
Projektstart: 01/2010
Projektende: 12/2012
Publikationen
Vössing, K. (2010): "Social democratic party formation and national variation in labor politics", Forthcoming in Comparative Politics. Vössing, K. (2009): The failure of American socialism as the rational response of labor elites to external constraints. Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Political Science Association. Chicago, April 4. Vössing, K. (2009): American political development and labor politics in comparative perspective. Research in American Politics Workshop. Ohio StateUniversity, February 18. Vössing, K. (2008): External constraints, knowledge diffusion, and strategic choices. A comprehensive explanation for the formation of social democratic parties. Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Political Science Association. Chicago, April 6. Vössing, K. (2008): A new typology of labor politics and the contours of an explanation for social democratic party formation. Comparative Politics Research Workshop. Ohio State University, March 14.
