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Zusatztext "In this volume, Archer poses the most novel and thought-provoking answer ventured in many years to one of American political history's most enduring questions. Archer takes an unusual approach to the subject, offering a comparative history of labor and politics in the United States and Australia as a means to tease out the key points that allowed Austrailians to form a labor party while Americans did not. The study is meticulous in its construction, and deeply informed on both the Australian and American contexts." ---Joseph A. McCartin, Journal of Social History Informationen zum Autor Robin Archer is director of the postgraduate program in political sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was previously the fellow in politics at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford. Klappentext Why is the United States the only advanced capitalist country with no labor party? This question is one of the great enduring puzzles of American political development, and it lies at the heart of a fundamental debate about the nature of American society. Tackling this debate head-on, Robin Archer puts forward a new explanation for why there is no American labor party--an explanation that suggests that much of the conventional wisdom about "American exceptionalism" is untenable. Conventional explanations rely on comparison with Europe. Archer challenges these explanations by comparing the United States with its most similar New World counterpart--Australia. This comparison is particularly revealing, not only because the United States and Australia share many fundamental historical, political, and social characteristics, but also because Australian unions established a labor party in the late nineteenth century, just when American unions, against a common backdrop of industrial defeat and depression, came closest to doing something similar. Archer examines each of the factors that could help explain the American outcome, and his systematic comparison yields unexpected conclusions. He argues that prosperity, democracy, liberalism, and racial hostility often promoted the very changes they are said to have obstructed. And he shows that it was not these characteristics that left the United States without a labor party, but, rather, the powerful impact of repression, religion, and political sectarianism. Zusammenfassung Why is the United States the only advanced capitalist country with no labor party? This title puts forward an explanation for why there is no American labor party - an explanation that suggests that much of the conventional wisdom about 'American exceptionalism' is untenable. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of Figures xi List of Tables xii List of Abbreviations xiii Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 Labor-based Parties 3 Explaining by Comparing 6 Some Possible Objections 10 Historical Overview 13 Mutual Awareness 17 Chapter Summary 19 Chapter 1: Workers 23 Prosperity 23 Skilled and Unskilled Workers 31 The Effect of the New Unionism 36 Workers and Farmers 39 Conclusion 47 Chapter 2: Race 49 The Extent of Racial Hostility 50 The Effect in Australia 55 The Effect in the United States Compared 58 European Immigration 63 Conclusion 71 Chapter 3: Elections and the Constitution 73 Early Suffrage 73 The Electoral System 77 Multimember Districts 80 The Case of Illinois 82 Federalism 84 Presidentialism 86 Conclusion 91 Chapter 4: The Courts 93 The Court Repression Thesis 93 Labor Law and the Courts 95 Union Attitudes towards Politics 98 The Effect of Court Repression 102 Conclusion 110 Chapter 5: Repression 112 Two Theses on Repression 112 The Extent of Repression 113 Soldiers and Police 121 The Effect of Repression in Australia 124 The Effect in the United States Compared 127 The Effect in Illinois Compared 133 Complexities and Qualifications 139 Conclusion 14...
