"Labor Policy" in Germany and the USA

"Labor policy" has been understood as the state regulation of industrial relations (or in other words, of the relationship between capital and labor), and the resolution of sociopolitical problems at the intersection with industrial law (such as unemployment insurance) that are thereby engendered. The first task of this project was to analytically delimit the policy area, and in a similar manner for both nation-states. The second was to empirically establish whether the analytic boundaries proposed were acceptable to the understanding of participants in the respective systems. Legislative proposals in the "labor policy" area at the national level were analyzed comparatively for Germany and the USA. The most influential actors in this policy area were identified and subsequently interviewed. A comparative analysis was carried out based on the data collected with respect to the structure of conflict, the informational connections, the coalitions, and the resource exchange among key actors in this policy area. In addition, the processes leading to binding collective decisions (laws) were analyzed. In so doing, the differing manner in which the political systems of the US and Germany are organized can be empirically demonstrated with respect to the influence organized interests exert.