Union Democracy
Union Democracy: The Internal Politics of the International Typographical Union is a book by Seymour Martin Lipset, Martin Trow and James S. Coleman, originally published by New York Free Press in 1956.
The book is a case study of one particular organization: the International Typographical Union, an organization seen by the authors as the most democratic one in the contemporary (1950s) United States; an organization that seemingly disproved Robert Michels' Iron law of oligarchy.
Overview
The book addresses the factors that influence the
The book is a case study of one particular organization: the International Typographical Union, organization seen by the authors as the most democratic one in the contemporary (1950s) United States; an organization that seemingly disproved Michels' iron law. Lipset noticed that ITU formed an interesting contradiction to the iron law in the 1940s, while studying under one of the 'giants' of sociology, Robert K. Merton, who encouraged him to develop those ideas into an article, and later, a book, a task that Lipset approached with the help of two other researchers, Martin Trow and James S. Coleman. In the course of his research Lipset and others interviewed over 400 members of the ITU.[2]
Lipset, Trow and Coleman largely agree with Michels that there are oligarchical bureaucratic tendencies in all organizations. They point to several factors that made ITU different from most other unions—and organizations—and thus able to defy the iron law. They noted that unlike most of such organizations, ITU was founded by a group of local unions valuing their
One of the conclusions of Lipset, Trow and Coleman research was that behaviour of individuals could be related to the qualities of local environments (
The book was and still is widely
See also
References
Footnotes
- ^ Lipset 1988 ; Michels 1915.
- ^ a b c Lipset 1988.
- ^ Goldfield 1998.
Bibliography
- "Citation Classics Commentary on Union Democracy" (PDF). (254 KiB), Seymour Martin Lipset, 20/1988. Last accessed on 16 September 2006
- Goldfield, Michael (1998). "Lipset's Union Democracy After 40 Years". Extensions. Archived from the original on May 25, 2013.
- Michels, Robert (1915). Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy. Translated by Paul, Eden; Paul, Cedar. New York: Free Press.
Further reading
- Seymour Martin Lipset, Martin Trow and James S. Coleman, Union Democracy: The Internal Politics of the International Typographical Union, New York, Free Press, 1956, ISBN 0-02-919210-2
- Lucio Baccaro, "Union Democracy Revisited: Decision-Making Procedures in the Italian Labour Movement," Economic and Industrial Democracy. 2001; 22: 183-210
- Harry H. Wellington, Union Democracy and Fair Representation: Federal Responsibility in a Federal System, Yale Law Journal, Vol. 67, No. 8 (Jul., 1958), pp. 1327–1362
- S. Hix, Elections, Parties and Institutional Design: A Comparative Perspective on European Union Democracy, West European Politics, 1998, Vol. 21; Number 3, pages 19–52