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This articles begins by tracing the changes in trade union attitudes to financial participation, which have generally become more favourable. A number of national case studies are considered. Having reviewed the possible advantages, the author cautions against a number of risks in extending such schemes. In particular care must be taken to avoid them acting as substitutes for direct participation by workers and their representatives in managing the companies in which they work, worker representatives must be consulted and schemes must be inclusive and not serve to exacerbate income differentials or income insecurity.

The European Foundation's EPOC survey results suggest there is a need to reappraise the relative significance of the two main forms of direct participation: consultation and delegation. Unexpectedly, in the light of the very different priority accorded to them in both the policy and scientific debates, not only does a majority of respondent managers regard the consultative forms of direct participation as more important than the delegative forms but the effects of the consultative forms on a range of indicators of performance are also considered to be at least equal to those of the delegative forms. Intriguingly, too, statistical analysis suggests the consultative forms are more likely to be associated with positive employment trends than delegation.

Employee participation is an important element of the European Social Model and this paper focuses on the extent of the different forms of participation - representative participation; direct participation; and financial participation, as measured in the European Foundation's EPOC survey. The paper examines the findings on these different types of participation separately and finally compares the levels of participation by combining all three systems. By taking this approach, important differences were found across the ten countries surveyed, with Sweden showing the strongest implementation of all types of participation, while Portugal is the weakest, in particular in representation participation arrangements. The paper indicates that there is a wide gap between the desired objective of the European Social Model and the practice of participation in Europe.