The Puzzle of Strikes Class and State Strategies in Postwar Italy [Hardcover]

This book focuses on the strategic interaction of workers, employers and the state in postwar Italian strikes.This book is an attempt to explain the temporal movement of postwar Italian strikes: why and when strikes go up or down, and what the strategies of the main actors involved are. In many ways, the book is unique in the social sciences. First, it takes an inductive approach. Rather than start with theories and then use available empirical evidence to test the explanatory power of the theories, the book starts with date. Second, the book is based on a variety of empirical evidence: statistical, historical, ethnographic, and survey material. Third, the book considers the strategies of all the actors involved: workers, employers, the state, and the radical left. Finally, the book does not simply explain the movement of strikes; more broadly, it attempts to show how strikes, in their turn, deeply affect the economic, institutional, and political spheres of society.This book is an attempt to explain the temporal movement of postwar Italian strikes: why and when strikes go up or down, and what the strategies of the main actors involved are. In many ways, the book is unique in the social sciences. First, it takes an inductive approach. Rather than start with theories and then use available empirical evidence to test the explanatory power of the theories, the book starts with date. Second, the book is based on a variety of empirical evidence: statistical, historical, ethnographic, and survey material. Third, the book considers the strategies of all the actors involved: workers, employers, the state, and the radical left. Finally, the book does not simply explain the movement of strikes; more broadly, it attempts to show how strikes, in their turn, deeply affect the economic, institutional, and political spheres of society.Focusing on the strategic interaction among workers, employers, and the state, this book examines the temporal movement of postwar Italil£%