A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF WORKING-CLASS DISORGANIZATION - UNION DECLINE IN 18 ADVANCED CAPITALIST COUNTRIES

In contrast to the diverse trends that prevailed for most of the postw ar period, unionization rates in the advanced capitalist countries gen erally declined in the 1980s. I propose a discrete-time hazard-rate mo del to explain this novel pattern of labor disorganization. Model esti mates indicate that union decline is related to growing economic openn ess, unemployment, preexisting levels of unionization, the decentraliz ation of collective bargaining institutions, and the electoral failure of social democratic parties through the 1980s.