20世紀アメリカの労働と福祉 : American Standard of LivingとWelfare Capitalismを中心に(第2セッション労働と福祉,20世紀資本主義-歴史と方法の再検討-,創立五十周年記念大会報告集)

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Conventional wisdom attributes the uniqueness of labor and industrial relations in the United States to its unique pre-industrial history, like the absence of feudalism, etc., or to the unique character of American labor itself, such as the heterogeneous composition of the working class. Sanford Jacoby suggests an additional and probably more important factor which contributes to the uniqueness of American labor. That factor is management. In this article the author tries to develop Jacoby's argument by examining the characteristics of welfare capitalism and its long lasting effects on the workers and industrial relations in the US. The term "welfare capitalism" refers to the labor policies adopted by some major manufacturing companies, mainly in the mass-production industries, during the 1920s and early 1930s. Welfare capitalism was a set of labor policies aimed at integrating employees into a corporate society as an isolated island in the industrial ocean. In other words, its target was to achieve "factory solidarity" instead of "class solidarity". Welfare activities, personnel management, and employee representation plans were typical components of welfare capitalism. Welfare capitalism not only affected workers of the days but also had a profound and long-lasting effect in shaping the modern industrial relations and welfare state in the U.S. as a whole.
1999-09-30