Who Sits at the Table in the House of Labor? Rank-and-File Citizenship and the Unraveling of Confederal Organizations

Labor unions, religious denominations, political interest groups, and others often aggregate the interests of their members through confederally structured organizations. But governance rules, central authority, scale of membership, and scope of activity vary across time and organizations. Furthermo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of law, economics, & organization economics, & organization, 2012-08, Vol.28 (3), p.588-616
Main Author: Ahlquist, John S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Board of directors
Citizenship
Confederation
Contribution rates
Control
Cooperation
Corporate governance
Craft unions
Endowments
Governance
Labor
Labor unions
Labour movements
Memberships
Public good
Public goods
Secessionism
Studies
Trade unions
U.S.A
Union organizing
Votes
Voting
Voting rights
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Summary:Labor unions, religious denominations, political interest groups, and others often aggregate the interests of their members through confederally structured organizations. But governance rules, central authority, scale of membership, and scope of activity vary across time and organizations. Furthermore, unlike citizens of federally organized nation-states, individual members are rarely direct (voting) members of confederal organizations. I present a simple model of public goods provision under the threat of exit showing that distributive conflict over the appropriate balance between the gains from cooperation available in confederal organizations with the loss of control for individual groups can explain this variation in governance as well as the infrequent enfranchisement of the rank-and-file at the confederal level. I illustrate my conclusions with a comparative examination of the origins and development of the Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor. I conclude with some observations about the recent schism in the American labor movement.
ISSN:8756-6222
1465-7341
DOI:10.1093/jleo/ewr027