Social Dialogue and the Expanding World [antikvár]

Chapter I TRIPARTISM: ITS BIRTH AND MISSION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE In Central and Eastern Europe, in the context of fundamental political and economic changes starting at the end of the 1980s, national tripartite institutions appeared on the scene and negotiations and consultations began between national governments, trade union confederations and employers' associations. This process started in Hungary, where the National Council for the Reconciliation of Interests' was established in 1988 by the transitional Nemeth Government. The example was followed after the "velvet" revolution by Czechoslovakia, where Councils of Economic and Social Agreement were set up on the level of both the federation and the two republics (1990). Similar institutions appeared in Bulgaria (1990) and in several other countries. In Poland it was as late as 1992 that negotiations were started about a tripartite State Enterprise Pact, which led to the institutionalisation of contacts between the unions, employers and the government. The questions - to which the present book tries to find the answers - are: what was (is) the role of tripartite practices in the political and economic transformation of Central and Eastern Europe? What were (are) the political and economic opportunities and constraints which contributed to their birth and determine their operation? What were (are) their major achievements and shortcomings? What major difficulties do (did) they face and how could (or could not) they be overcome? The analysis focuses on Hungary's tripartism in the period 1988-99. Its more than ten years history may however have lessons to leam for academicians and practitioners all over the region and maybe outside of it too. 1 In Hungarian political and labour relations terminology tripartism is referred to as tripartite interest reconciliation. The concept of interest reconciliation has its roots in social/labour relations research and theory of the 1970s and 1980s. It was used as an euphemism to describe such processes as were ignored, denied or looked upon as undesirable and not tolerated by the then official political ideology, such as conflicts, campaigning, bargaining etc. The social researchers who "invented" it - including the author of the present book - used h for the description of primarily enteiprise level processes, such as informal go-slows and work stoppages to achieve higher earnings. See e.g. Héthy, L. - Makó, Cs.: Munkásmagatartások és a gazdasági szervezet. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1972. (In English; Patterns of Workers' Behaviour and the Business Enterprise. Institute of Sociology and Institute of Labour Research. Budapest, 1989. 213. p.) and Héthy, L. - Makó, Cs.: Munkások, érdekek, érdekegyeztetés. (Workers, Interests, Interest Reconciliation.) Gondolat Kiadó, Budapest, 1978. The term "interest reconcihation", although not a coinage which enhances the transparency or beauty of labour relations terminology, has proved extremely infectious. SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND THE EXPANDING WORLD 5