IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ums/papers/2013-06.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social Democracy and Distributive Conflict in the UK, 1950-2010

Author

Listed:
  • Carlo V. Fiorio

    (University of Milan)

  • Simon Mohun

    (Queen Mary University of London)

  • Roberto Veneziani

    (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

Abstract

ln the last three decades, two questions have been central for the Left. ls there a future for electoral socialism and social democracy? And, is it any longer possible to promote a significant redistribution of income in favour of labour? Political and economic events seem to suggest negative answers. ln his influential work, Adam Przeworski suggests that this is an irreversible trend that makes it impossible in the long-run to promote genuinely socialist objectives in capitalist democracies. ln particular, the structural dependence of labour on capital severely constrains feasible income distributions. ln this paper, a detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the post-war UK economy is provided which casts doubts on the structural dependence thesis. A short run profit-squeeze mechanism seems to exist, but income shares are more variable than the structural dependence argument suggests, and the power resources available to the two main classes in the economy are among the key determinants of distributive outcomes, different political-economic equilibria corresponding to different configurations of the balance of power between the two classes. JEL Categories:

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo V. Fiorio & Simon Mohun & Roberto Veneziani, 2013. "Social Democracy and Distributive Conflict in the UK, 1950-2010," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2013-06, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2013-06
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.umass.edu/economics/publications/2013-06.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hakkio, Craig S. & Rush, Mark, 1991. "Cointegration: how short is the long run?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 571-581, December.
    2. Roberto Veneziani, 2013. "Exploitation, inequality and power," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 25(4), pages 526-545, October.
    3. Armèn Hakhverdian, 2009. "Capturing Government Policy on the Left–Right Scale: Evidence from the United Kingdom, 1956–2006," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 57(4), pages 720-745, December.
    4. Hans Keman, 1993. "Theoretical Approaches to Social Democracy," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 5(3), pages 291-316, July.
    5. Canova, Fabio, 1998. "Detrending and business cycle facts: A user's guide," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 533-540, May.
    6. Canova, Fabio, 1998. "Detrending and business cycle facts," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 475-512, May.
    7. Arjun Jayadev, 2007. "Capital account openness and the labour share of income," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 31(3), pages 423-443, May.
    8. Luciano BOGGIO & Vincenzo DALL’AGLIO & Marco MAGNANI, 2010. "On Labour Shares in Recent Decades: A Survey," Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, Vita e Pensiero, Pubblicazioni dell'Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, vol. 118(3), pages 283-333.
    9. J. David Richardson, 1995. "Income Inequality and Trade: How to Think, What to Conclude," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 33-55, Summer.
    10. Swank, Duane, 1992. "Politics and the Structural Dependence of the State in Democratic Capitalist Nations," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 86(1), pages 38-54, March.
    11. Cavaliere, Giuseppe, 2005. "Limited Time Series With A Unit Root," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(5), pages 907-945, October.
    12. Harvie, David, 2000. "Testing Goodwin: Growth Cycles in Ten OECD Countries," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 24(3), pages 349-376, May.
    13. Lütkepohl,Helmut & Krätzig,Markus (ed.), 2004. "Applied Time Series Econometrics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521839198, September.
    14. Mark Wickham-Jones, 1995. "Anticipating Social Democracy, Preempting Anticipations: Economic Policy-Making in the British Labor Party, 1987-1992," Politics & Society, , vol. 23(4), pages 465-494, December.
    15. Elliott, Graham & Rothenberg, Thomas J & Stock, James H, 1996. "Efficient Tests for an Autoregressive Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(4), pages 813-836, July.
    16. Lütkepohl,Helmut & Krätzig,Markus (ed.), 2004. "Applied Time Series Econometrics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521547871, September.
    17. Jess Benhabib & Adam Przeworski, 2006. "The political economy of redistribution under democracy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 29(2), pages 271-290, October.
    18. Veneziani, Roberto, 2007. "Exploitation and time," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 132(1), pages 189-207, January.
    19. Johansen, Soren, 1995. "Likelihood-Based Inference in Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Models," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198774501.
    20. Kitschelt, Herbert, 1993. "Class Structure and Social Democratic Party Strategy," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 299-337, July.
    21. Armèn Hakhverdian, 2009. "Capturing Government Policy on the Left-Right Scale: Evidence from the United Kingdom, 1956-2006," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 57, pages 720-745, December.
    22. George J. Borjas, 1994. "The Economics of Immigration," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1667-1717, December.
    23. Roberto Veneziani, 2012. "Analytical Marxism," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 649-673, September.
    24. Veneziani, Roberto & Mohun, Simon, 2006. "Structural stability and Goodwin's growth cycle," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 437-451, December.
    25. Korpi, Walter & Palme, Joakim, 2003. "New Politics and Class Politics in the Context of Austerity and Globalization: Welfare State Regress in 18 Countries, 1975–95," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 97(3), pages 425-446, August.
    26. King, Desmond S. & Wickham-Jones, Mark, 1990. "Social Democracy and Rational Workers," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 387-413, July.
    27. Mohun, Simon & Veneziani, Roberto, 2006. "Goodwin cycles and the U.S. economy, 1948-2004," MPRA Paper 30444, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daniele Tavani & Luca Zamparelli, 2020. "Growth, income distribution, and the ‘entrepreneurial state’," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 117-141, January.
    2. Charpe, Matthieu & Flaschel, Peter & Hartmann, Florian & Malikane, Christopher, 2014. "Segmented Labor Markets and the Distributive Cycle: A Roadmap towards Inclusive Growth," MPRA Paper 62832, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Ivan D. Trofimov, 2019. "Stability of Labour Shares: Evidence from OECD Economies," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 17(1), pages 57-89.
    4. Daniele Tavani & Luca Zamparelli, 2013. "Endogenous Technical Change, Employment and Distribution in the Goodwin Model," IMK Working Paper 127-2013, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    5. Tavani Daniele & Zamparelli Luca, 2015. "Endogenous technical change, employment and distribution in the Goodwin model of the growth cycle," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 209-216, April.
    6. Bengtsson, Erik & Waldenström, Daniel, 2018. "Capital Shares and Income Inequality: Evidence from the Long Run," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(3), pages 712-743, September.
    7. Codrina Rada & David Kiefer, 2013. "Distribution-utilization interactions: a race to the bottom among OECD countries," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2013_13, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    8. Stamegna, Marco, 2022. "Wage inequality and induced innovation in a classical-Marxian growth model," MPRA Paper 113805, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bernstein, Ronald & Madlener, Reinhard, 2015. "Short- and long-run electricity demand elasticities at the subsectoral level: A cointegration analysis for German manufacturing industries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 178-187.
    2. Byrne, Joseph P. & Nagayasu, Jun, 2010. "Structural breaks in the real exchange rate and real interest rate relationship," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 138-151.
    3. Olmo, Jose & Sanso-Navarro, Marcos, 2015. "Changes in the transmission of monetary policy during crisis episodes: Evidence from the euro area and the U.S," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 155-166.
    4. Chen, Xiaoshan & Mills, Terence C., 2009. "Evaluating growth cycle synchronisation in the EU," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 342-351, March.
    5. Bonga-Bonga, Lumengo & Kabundi, Alain, 2015. "Monetary Policy Instrument and Inflation in South Africa: Structural Vector Error Correction Model Approach," MPRA Paper 63731, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Kyritsis, Evangelos & Serletis, Apostolos, 2018. "The zero lower bound and market spillovers: Evidence from the G7 and Norway," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 100-123.
    7. Ralf Brüggemann & Helmut Lütkepohl, 2006. "A small monetary system for the euro area based on German data," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(6), pages 683-702, September.
    8. Theodore Panagiotidis & Panagiotis Printzis, 2016. "On the macroeconomic determinants of the housing market in Greece: a VECM approach," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 387-409, July.
    9. Till Strohsal & Christian R. Proaño & Jürgen Wolters, 2019. "Assessing the cross-country interaction of financial cycles: evidence from a multivariate spectral analysis of the USA and the UK," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 385-398, August.
    10. Helmut Lütkepohl, 2013. "Vector autoregressive models," Chapters, in: Nigar Hashimzade & Michael A. Thornton (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Empirical Macroeconomics, chapter 6, pages 139-164, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Lumengo Bonga-Bonga, 2017. "Assessing the Effectiveness of the Monetary Policy Instrument during the Inflation Targeting Period in South Africa," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(4), pages 706-713.
    12. Kayhan, Selim & Adiguzel, Uğur & Bayat, Tayfur & Lebe, Fuat, 2010. "Causality Relationship between Real GDP and Electricity Consumption in Romania (2001-2010)," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(4), pages 169-183, December.
    13. Moura, N.J. & Ribeiro, Marcelo B., 2013. "Testing the Goodwin growth-cycle macroeconomic dynamics in Brazil," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(9), pages 2088-2103.
    14. repec:bla:germec:v:11:y:2010:i::p:381-396 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. repec:kap:iaecre:v:14:y:2008:i:1:p:36-47 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Simón Sosvilla-Rivero & Marta Gómez-Puig, 2016. "“Debt-growth linkages in EMU across countries and time horizons”," IREA Working Papers 201610, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Apr 2016.
    17. Cerqueira, Vinícius Dos Santos & Ribeiro, Márcio Bruno & Martinez, Thiago Sevilhano, 2014. "Propagação Assimétrica de Choques Monetários na Economia Brasileira: Evidências com base em um modelo vetorial não-linear de transição suave," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 68(1), April.
    18. Pami Dua & Vineeta Sharma, 2013. "Measurement And Patterns Of International Synchronization-- A Spectral Approach," Working papers 224, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    19. Lopes, Artur Silva & Zsurkis, Gabriel Florin, 2017. "Are linear models really unuseful to describe business cycle data?," Economics Discussion Papers 2017-5, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    20. Mark J. Holmes & Theodore Panagiotidis & Abhijit Sharma, 2007. "The Sustainability of India's current account (1950-2003): Evidence from parametric and non-parametric unit root and cointegration tests," Working Paper series 41_07, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    21. Fahmida Khatun & Syed Yusuf Saadat & Md. Kamruzzaman, 2019. "FINANCE FOR SDGs: Addressing Governance Challenge of Aid Utilisation in Bangladesh," CPD Working Paper 125, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
    22. Galanis, Giorgos & Veneziani, Roberto & Yoshihara, Naoki, 2016. "Growth, Exploitation and Class Inequalities," Discussion Paper Series 636, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D33 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Factor Income Distribution
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J5 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2013-06. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Daniele Girardi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deumaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.