COALITION POLITICS AT WORK: NEW CLASS CONFIGURATIONS IN CAPITALIST AND STATE-SOCIALIST SOCIETIES

This thesis addresses problems at the intersection of political sociology and the sociology of work with the aim of developing an approach to class and stratification which is an alternative both to the prevailing framework and to the Marxist counter-paradigm. Its object of study is the relationship between the organization of work and the dynamics of class formation examined in both capitalist and state-socialist societal contexts. Recent literature in industrial sociology and theories of the "New Class" in both types of societies are critically examined. The first case study challenges Braverman's account of the Taylorist reorganization of work by examining the constellation of relations among skilled crafts, state managers, and industrial engineers in the United States during World War I. The timing and patterns of changes in the labor process are traced to developments in the broader political arena as state intervention in the field of industrial relations produced dramatic realignments among groups contending for control at the point of production. The "scientific managers" are not viewed as the direct agents of the large industrialists but as a segment of a "new middle class" which was attempting to increase its autonomy within bureaucratic organizations by claiming a monopoly of knowledge of the supervisory process. The second case examines the politics of industrial relations in Eastern Europe. "Planning" in these societies is a complicated system of three-sided bargaining among central planners, enterprise directors, and workers. Chronic patterns of capital hoarding and labor shortage provide a basis for workers' bargaining power on the shop-floor and in the "second economy." The relationship between investment cycles and real income is examined. Workers' bargaining power becomes a factor in the broader political sphere as shown in an analysis of conflicts and alliances resulting from reform attempts in the '60s and '70s in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.