16 Varieties of Capitalism, National Industrial
Relations Systems and Transnational
Challenges
Richard Hyman1 Introduction 411
2 One capitalism or many? 412
3 Some important analytical distinctions 417
4 The European social model(s) 421
5 ‘Globalisation’: the death knell for social Europe? 423
6 Conclusion: contradictory trends 427
7 Discussion questions 429
8 Further reading 429
References 430
1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses a broad range of issues concerning the past, present and
future of employment regulation. Drawing on the recent literature on ‘varieties
of capitalism’, it shows that national economies can be structured in many dif-
ferent ways, and that these differences are associated with varieties of industrial
relations systems. The analytical approach has much in common with that
which underlies Chapter 5: in any society there is an interdependence, often
mutually reinforcing, between the behavioural dispositions of the parties to the