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Revisiting the Party Paradox of Finance Capitalism: Evidence from Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands

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Author Info
Gerhard Schnyder
Abstract

The 'party paradox' thesis claims that centre-left parties have a genuine interest in pro-shareholder corporate governance reforms, while centre-right parties oppose such reforms. Based on case studies of Switzerland, Sweden, and the Netherlands, I test the accuracy of this thesis and find that it does not apply to either of these cases: in Switzerland pro-shareholder reforms were made possible by centre-right not centre-left support; In Sweden and the Netherlands pro-shareholder reforms were marginal, because a broad coalition uniting centre-right and centre-left opposed them. My findings show therefore that the 'party paradox' is not a universal phenomenon and that most micro-level explanations of this phenomenon are inaccurate. In order to explain in which cases a party paradox will emerge, we need to add the nature of relations between employees and employers (cooperative vs. confrontational) as a determinant of centre-left preferences.

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Paper provided by ESRC Centre for Business Research in its series ESRC Centre for Business Research - Working Papers with number wp372.

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Date of creation: Dec 2008
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Handle: RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp372

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Related research
Keywords: Corporate governance; legal reform; Switzerland; Sweden; the Netherlands;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
P52 - Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Studies of Particular Economies
K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Corporation and Securities Law

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Peter Hogfeldt, 2005. "The History and Politics of Corporate Ownership in Sweden," NBER Chapters, in: A History of Corporate Governance around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Managers, pages 517-580 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  2. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Marco Pagano & Paolo F. Volpin, 2005. "The Political Economy of Corporate Governance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1005-1030, September. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-De-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 1999. "Corporate Ownership Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 471-517, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Sven-Olof Collin, 1998. "Why are these Islands of Conscious Power Found in the Ocean of Ownership? Institutional and Governance Hypotheses Explaining the Existence of Business Groups in Sweden," Journal of Management Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(6), pages 719-746, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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