which (as in Britain) is ‘voluntaristic’ – in other words, not subject to detailed
statutory regulation – but coordinated by strong collective organisation among
the ‘labour market parties’; and- a ‘Mediterranean’ model, with (until recently) an extensive nationalised sector
and significant state intervention in economic development; elaborate legal reg-
ulation of employment contracts; and institutionalised union and employer
involvement in the welfare regime.
5 ‘GLOBALISATION’: THE DEATH KNELL
FOR SOCIAL EUROPE?
In the past decade, it has been increasingly questioned whether such institu-
tionally regulated industrial relations systems, and indeed the diversity of vari-
eties of capitalism, can survive in the face of growing internationalisation. The
argument is widely voiced – by academics, politicians and industrial relations
practitioners alike – that ‘globalisation’ is driving a convergence of capitalisms
towards the Anglo-American model, within which status will increasingly give
way to contract, exit will predominate over voice (in particular making it
easier for employersto ‘exit’ from continued obligations towards employees),
and the regulation of labour markets by law or collective organisations will
atrophy.
The concept of globalisation has become something of a cliché. Among
the pioneers of the idea is Ohmae, who writes (1991) of the emergence of a
‘borderless world’ or ‘interlinked economy’ in which the globalisation of pro-
duction chains, product markets, corporate structures and financial flows
makes national boundaries and the nation-state largely irrelevant. Reich (1991: 3)
likewise anticipates an era with ‘no nationalproducts or technologies, no
national corporations, no national industries. There will no longer be
national economies, at least as we have come to understand that concept.’
Whether such a prospect is welcomed or deplored, its inevitability is widely
agreed.
Recent decades have indeed seen clear trends towards the liberalisation of
cross-national trade through the reduction or removal of tariff barriers; and
while international trade is nothing new – some indeed argue that the inter-
national economy today is no more globalised in this respect than at the begin-
ning of the twentieth century – the cross-national integration of production
within multinational companies (MNCs) certainly is. Again, while there may
be debates concerning how far MNCs are genuinely multinational – in most
cases their activities are concentrated close to home – the potential for large
firms in particular to move operations across frontiers, partly to escape restrictive
National industrial relations and transnational challenges 423