IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jnlpup/v3y1983i03p265-283_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Between Pluralism and Corporatism German Business Associations and the State

Author

Listed:
  • Streeck, Wolfgang

Abstract

This paper explores the complexities and ambiguities of the relationship between the state and business associations by examining the case of West Germany. While business associations continue to lobby the state on behalf of their members, they perform a number of other roles. Association staff often provide information and expert advice to the state. The state can lend associations organisational support by setting rules of political influence that are favourable to them. Business associations become involved in the formulation and even implementation of what are effectively public policy functions, though associations have a ambivalent attitude, preferring both autonomy from the state and influence. Business associations may fend off attempts by the state to subject their members' behaviour to legal regulation by offering self-regulation with state approval; however, this can critically affect relations between associations and their members. Devolution of public authority to business associations is resorted to pragmatically, or opportunistically, by both associations and the state as an expedient solution to individual problems. This arises because associations lack a consistent theory defining their status in relation to the state.

Suggested Citation

  • Streeck, Wolfgang, 1983. "Between Pluralism and Corporatism German Business Associations and the State," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(3), pages 265-283, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jnlpup:v:3:y:1983:i:03:p:265-283_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0143814X00005948/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cognard, Étienne, 2013. "Intégration européenne et déclin du néo-corporatisme. Un renversement de perspective à la lumière des accords collectifs sur la formation continue," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 14.
    2. Mike Raco, 1997. "Business Associations and the Politics of Urban Renewal: The Case of the Lower Don Valley, Sheffield," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 34(3), pages 383-402, March.
    3. Stephen Bell, 1994. "Australian Business Associations: New Opportunities and Challenges," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 19(2), pages 137-158, December.
    4. Stephen Bell, 2006. "A Victim of Its Own Success: Internationalization, Neoliberalism, and Organizational Involution at the Business Council of Australia," Politics & Society, , vol. 34(4), pages 543-570, December.
    5. Jirjahn, Uwe, 2021. "Membership in Employers' Associations and Collective Bargaining Coverage in Germany," GLO Discussion Paper Series 954, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Rodrigues, Lúcia Lima & Craig, Russell, 2022. "Using historical institutional analysis of corporatism to understand the professionalization of accounting in Latin America," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    7. Uwe Jirjahn, 2023. "Membership in employers’ associations and collective bargaining coverage in Germany," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(3), pages 798-826, August.
    8. Mike Raco, 2003. "The Social Relations of Business Representation and Devolved Governance in the United Kingdom," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 35(10), pages 1853-1876, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jnlpup:v:3:y:1983:i:03:p:265-283_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/pup .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.