Search

The papers in this volume seek to broaden the concept of ‘varieties of unionism’ by comparing the labour movements of six countries in the Asia-Pacific region: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Australia. While there is a great diversity of economic, socio-cultural and ethnic factors which have influenced the nature of industrial relations and unionism in each country, all have experienced the impact of globalisation on their labour markets to varying degrees. The repertoire of revitalisation strategies used by unions in Asia are similar, in many ways, to those adopted in western market economies, but their specific forms differ. The authors of the studies in this volume examine the factors which have helped and/or hindered union revitalisation in each of the countries studied. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines changes in Australian and Japanese public-sector performance reporting and value-for-money (VFM) initiatives by second-tier government in these countries. It proposes a theoretical framework within which to consider performance reporting and VFM. It provides a case study report of developments in Hokkaido, Japan and New South Wales with respect to VFM and performance reporting. It explores several explanatory forces in the observed differences. The article concludes with an analysis of the effects of Japanese and Australian performance reporting on VFM.

This article provides a detailed analysis of individual preferences towards public financial aid to students from low-income families. Who favours/opposes such aid? What are the determinants of the respective preferences? I argue that three sets of factors jointly shape these preferences: materialistic self-interests, political attitudes, and the status quo of the higher education subsidy systems by generating positive feedback-effects. Results of multilevel ordered logit models utilizing the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data for up to 22 countries over two decades indicate that self-interest matters: students strongly favour subsidies as do their parents, while those paying for the spending and those not expecting to benefit oppose such aid. Moreover, political attitudes are important: Supporters of redistribution and of increased public education spending in general, as well as leftwing voters, are much more likely to support students. On the macro-level, the findings suggest that positive feedback-effects exist: in countries with generous subsidy systems, public support for subsidies is higher. This article is the first to systematically analyse preferences towards higher education subsidies across countries and time and demonstrates how positive feedback-effects increasingly lock-in countries’ tuition-subsidy paths, making the systems resistant to (radical) change. As such, it speaks to the literature on the political economy of skill formation, the welfare state, public opinion and the public opinion–policy link. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines organizational characteristics of Japanese community unions and analyses similarities and differences in the organizational forms and activities of community unionism between Japan and other industrialized countries. The article first outlines the conceptual framework of community unionism based on the literature review of studies on cases in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, and then examines to what extent the framework is applicable to the Japanese case. Although there are some common features, one of the important differences of community unionism between Japan and other industrialized countries is the weakness of coalition-building between community unions and community-based organizations in Japan compared to other countries. The article argues that the forms of community unionism are mediated by civil societal and institutional contexts of labour movements, and that the relative underdevelopment of civil society and industrial relations institutions (liberal union recognition procedures) in Japan explains the difference in the forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Maritime History is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)