Philippe C. Schmitter and Wolfgang Streeck

The Organization of Business Interests:
>Studying the Associative Action of Business in Advanced Industrial Societies

 

Abstract

 
The paper presents a theoretical outline for a cross-national comparative study of business associations. It identifies two clusters of independent variables that are assumed to affect the structure of intermediary organizations: properties of the represented group ("Logic of Membership") and properties of the state and other political institutions such as trade unions ("Logic of Influence"). It goes on to develop a model of the organizational properties of business associations as they respond to these two logics and to other functional exigencies ("Logic of Goal Formation" and "Logic of Effective Implementation"). In a further step, the paper suggests four dimensions ("Domains", "Structures", "Resources", "Outputs") in which the "organizational development" of interest associations from lower to higher levels of "organizational complexity" and "strategic autonomy" can be studied.
 

Zusammenfassung

 
Das Papier enthält einen theoretischen Entwurf für eine international vergleichende Studie von Wirtschaftsverbänden. Es benennt zwei Gruppen von unabhängigen Variablen, die die Struktur von intermediären Organisationen beeinflussen: Eigenschaften der vertretenen Gruppen ("Mitglieder-Logik") und Eigenschaften des Staates und anderer politischer Institutionen wie der Gewerkschaften ("Einfluß-Logik"). Im Anschluß daran wird ein Modell der organisatorischen Eigenschaften von Interessenverbänden als Ausdruck der Einwirkung der beiden genannten "Logiken" sowie anderer funktionaler Zwänge ("Logik der Zielformierung", "Logik der effektiven Zielverwirklichung") entwickelt. Danach werden vier organisatorische Dimensionen vorgeschlagen ("Domänen", "Strukturen", "Ressourcen", "Tätigkeiten"), in denen die "organisatorische Entwicklung" von Interessenverbänden von niedrigeren zu höheren Niveaus "organisierter Komplexität" und "strategischer Autonomie" untersucht werden kann.
 

Contents

 

	Introductory Preface
Part A:	Why Study the Organization of Business Interests?
1	The Substantive Problem: Business Interests as the Subject of Associative Action
2	The Theoretical Domain
2.1	The Political Imperatives for Business Associability
2.2	The Organizational Requirements for Business Associability
2.3	The Policy Consequences of Business Associability
Part B:	The Variables for Analysis
3	The Competing Imperatives and Logics of BIAs
4	The Logic of Membership
4.1	Number
4.2	Equality
4.3	Competition
4.3.1	External Competition
4.3.2	Internal Competition
4.4	Interdependence
4.5	>Heterogeneity
4.6	Turnover
4.7	Profitability and Growth
4.8	Social Cohesion
4.9	Concluding Remarks on the Logic of Membership
5	The Logic of Influence
5.1	Interactions with the State
5.1.1	General (National) Conditions
5.1.2	Specific (Sectoral) Conditions
5.2	Interactions with Organized Labor
5.2.1	General (National) Conditions
5.2.2	Specific (Sectoral) Conditions
6	Organizational Properties
6.1	Introduction
6.1.1	Organizational Development: Organized Complexity and Relative Autonomy
6.1.2	Domains, Structures
6.2	Domains
6.2.1	Parameters
6.2.2	Units of Membership
6.3	Structures
6.3.1	Intra-Organizational Structures
6.3.1.1	Horizontal Differentiation: Intra-Organizational Complexity
6.3.1.2	Hierarchical Integration: Intra-Organizational Coordination
6.3.2	Inter-Organizational Structures: Higher-order Associations
6.3.3	Inter-Organizational Structures: Associational Systems
6.4	Resources
6.5	Outputs

Solidaristic Goods, Public (Pressure) Goods

Selective Goods

Monopoly Goods

References