Why is there no labor party in the United States? / Robin Archer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Archer, Robin.

Series:

Princeton studies in American politics.

Princeton studies in American politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor unions--Political activity--United States--History.

Labor unions.

Labor unions--Political activity--Australia--History.

Political sociology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (369 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Why is the United States the only advanced capitalist country with no labor party? This question is one of the great enduring puzzles of American political development, and it lies at the heart of a fundamental debate about the nature of American society. Tackling this debate head-on, Robin Archer puts forward a new explanation for why there is no American labor party--an explanation that suggests that much of the conventional wisdom about "American exceptionalism" is untenable. Conventional explanations rely on comparison with Europe. Archer challenges these explanations by comparing the United States with its most similar New World counterpart--Australia. This comparison is particularly revealing, not only because the United States and Australia share many fundamental historical, political, and social characteristics, but also because Australian unions established a labor party in the late nineteenth century, just when American unions, against a common backdrop of industrial defeat and depression, came closest to doing something similar. Archer examines each of the factors that could help explain the American outcome, and his systematic comparison yields unexpected conclusions. He argues that prosperity, democracy, liberalism, and racial hostility often promoted the very changes they are said to have obstructed. And he shows that it was not these characteristics that left the United States without a labor party, but, rather, the powerful impact of repression, religion, and political sectarianism.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

CHAPTER 1. Workers

CHAPTER 2. Race

CHAPTER 3. Elections and the Constitution

CHAPTER 4. The Courts

CHAPTER 5. Repression

CHAPTER 6. Liberalism

CHAPTER 7. Religion

CHAPTER 8. Socialism

Conclusion

Appendix: Notes and Sources for the Tables

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-282-96470-4

9786612964701

1-4008-3754-5

OCLC:

701704293