Roads to Post-Fordism

After the 1970s, Western European countries moved, at some point, from a period of prosperity and full employment to one shaped by stagnation and a crisis in employment. Why, and under what conditions, could relatively stable periods of development that occurred in the past occur again? In this book, the author develops a theoretical model to understand the restructuring of labour markets and social structures of advanced capitalist countries on the basis of the 'regulation approach'. This approach is then applied to comparative analysis of the national trajectories of the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. Against the background of Marx's and Weber's classical sociological theories, the book starts by raising the issue of whether or not there are general links between inclusion, exclusion and capitalism. This is followed by an outline of key concepts of the regulation approach and a discussion of the transition from Fordism to Post-Fordism which leads to empirically verifiable hypotheses about long-term trends in labour markets and social structures in Western Europe. These hypotheses serve as the theoretical basis for the subsequent country studies that are based on interviews with experts in the fields of labour markets and social policy and an evaluation of international labour statistics.