Abstract
IN all but the most superficial respects the system of industrial relations in Great Britain offers a marked contrast to those of the Scandinavian countries. Great Britain possesses a complex, differentiated and relatively decentralised institutional system which has not led to the formal and comprehensive normative regulation of industrial relations we have found in these other north European countries. To be sure, Great Britain does share some features in common with Scandinavia; but, as I have implied, these similarities are more apparent than real. For example, any comparison of the respective central labour organisations — such as the Swedish L.O. and the British T.U.C. — must not take their mere existence as an indication of overwhelming similarity. These organisations possess immense power in Scandinavia, whereas the T.U.C. has displayed chronic constitutional and de facto weakness throughout its entire history.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Joan Woodward, Industrial organisation: Theory and Practice (London, 1965).
H. J. Habakkuk, American and British Technology in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 1962).
E. J. Hobsbawm, Industry and Empire (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1969).
G. C. Allen, British Industries and their Organization, 1st edn (London, 1933).
A. J. Levine, Industrial Retardation in Britain 1880–1914 (London, 1967).
S. B. Saul, The Myth of the Great Depression (London, 1969).
G. C. Allen, The Structure of Industry in Britain, 3rd edn (London, 1970) p. 251.
G. D. H. Cole, British Trade Unionism (London, 1939).
V. L. Allen, ‘The Centenary of the British Trades Union Congress, 1868–1968’, in The Socialist Register, ed. Ralph Miliband and John Saville (London, 1968) pp. 231–51.
O. Kahn-Freund, Labour and the Law (London, 1952) p. 58.
T. Topham, ‘New Types of Bargaining’ in The Incompatibles: Trade Union Militancy and the Consensus, ed. R. Blackburn and A. Cockburn (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1967).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1974 British Sociological Association
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ingham, G.K. (1974). The Development of Industrial Relations in Great Britain. In: Strikes and Industrial Conflict. Studies in Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-01454-5_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-01454-5_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-13435-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-01454-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)