Addressing the Legitimacy Gap in the Israeli Corporatist Revival

Abstract

Since the mid-1980s, Israel's IntroductionThe study of industrial relations and labour law in Israel has documented a significant change in the nature of the system, from the corporatist past to the present pluralist model (Mundlak 2007). As opposed to many classical studies of corporatism, which cluster industrial relations regimes, award scores to corporatism and then measure various outcomes, such as inflation, inequality, growth and level of industrial action (cf. Visser 2007), the advantage of a single-case study is that it allows for ambiguities, enables studies of causation and accommodates a demonstration of institutional embeddedness and path determinacy. In the Israeli context, the simple story of a transition Guy Mundlak is at the Faculty

Union Density in Israel 1995–2010: The Hybridization of Industrial Relations

“…The new corporatist‐like developments are rather different from the broad bargaining patterns of the past (Mundlak ). However, the renewal of sector‐level agreements and the signing of the framework agreement for the public sector (2008, 2010) indicate that corporatist institutions remain resilient even under severe changes of circumstance.…”

“…The first is the process of revival of corporatist institutions, including the meaningful role of social partnership, sector‐wide collective agreements in the private sector, framework agreements for the public sector, and collective agreements at the national level, including—most notably—the introduction of mandatory pension for all workers. Sector‐ and nationwide agreements are also extended, thus ensuring comprehensive coverage (Mundlak ).…”

Activists face bureaucrats: the failure of theIsraeli social workers' campaign

“…In the field of labour, collective bargaining has been progressively decentralised; there are fewer extension orders and more workplace agreements, and fewer branch agreements are extended to non‐unionised workers (Kristal and Cohen, ). This process has been accompanied by greater recourse to the courts and legislation in place of bargaining (Ben‐Israel, ; Mundlak, 2007; ,; Radai, ). Union density has plummeted from over 80% of the waged workforce in the 1980s to about 45% by 2000 (Cohen et al ., ).…”

Tripartite adjudication—an endangered species

“…Tripartite public institutions, in which business and labour are represented alongside an independent third party, are often associated with corporatism (Heery and Noon, 2008: 83); that is, the state's exclusive recognition of trade union and employer associations (Mundlak, 2009). Siaroff (1999) points out that corporatism in fact has two usages: a system of interest representation and an institutionalised process of policy formation, above all in respect of economic policy.…”