Review of Taylor E. Dark, The Unions and the Democrats: An Enduring Alliance
Journal of Economic Literature, December 2001, Vol. 39, no. 4.
"Second edition, which has been updated by a new postscript, analyzes the evolving role of labor unions in national policy making and the course of their alliance with Democratic officeholders since the mid-1960s, highlighting a surprising continuity in labor's political role and power over the period. Reviews debates over the extent and causes of union membership decline as well as its impact on the political agenda of organized labor and its alliance with the Democratic Party. Views the process of political bargaining between union leaders and politicians as involving an exchange of resources that each side finds valuable and considers the interests of each side, reasons unions are in politics, resources union leaders and politicians bring to the table for political bargaining, and the conditions under which stable cooperation is likely to develop. Studies the unusually cooperation relationship between President Johnson and key union leaders and the limits of that cooperation; the crises of representation withing American political institutions and the labor movement, 1968-76; the origins of conflict between the Carter administration and the unions; the union strategy to regain the presidency; the persistence of a symbiotic relationship between labor lobbyists and the Democratic congressional leadership; and the experience of unions during the Clinton administration. A postscript addresses the last years of the Clinton presidency and the 2000 election. Dark is Associate Professor, and Associate Dean of the Graduate School of American Studies, at Doshisha University."