Structural Divisions within the Class Schema: Firm Size, Public Sector Employment and Party Support

Abstract

During the 1980s, labour market observers highlighted a trend towards ‘flexible specialization’ in the organization of production (e.g. Piore and Sabel, 1984; Brose, 1998: 147). This implied a shift away from the production of standardized goods, manufactured under conditions of mass production, towards more flexible and smaller-scale production units. Changes in the size of businesses have equally been pointed to as a relevant side effect of the sector-shift from manufacturing towards the services (Soskice, 1990: 52). In this context, Esping-Andersen (1999b: 303) highlights the impact that tertiarization has on the size of workplaces. Whereas ‘Fordism’ was characterized by large industrial establishments, he expects the service economy to be dominated by small-scale production units ‘where Taylorist management and hierarchies are only marginally possible’ (1999b: 303).