Download This PaperCoercion Against Coordination: W.H. Hutt on Collective Bargaining and the Strike-Threat System
It has been submitted to a special issue of the Review of Austrian Economics.
16 Pages Posted: 9 Oct 2024
Date Written: September 02, 2024
Abstract
W.H. Hutt's analysis of labor market institutions informed the rest of his analysis, particularly his understanding of consumers' sovereignty, his criticism of the South African color bar, and his postcolonial constitutional political economy. We explore Hutt's conviction that the strike-threat system protected affluent special interests from consumers and competitors rather than protecting workers from rapacious employers. Furthermore, we describe Hutt's constitutional escape via explicit payments to buy out special interests. We close with thoughts on Hutt's legacy for the twenty-first century.
Keywords: Collective bargaining, labor unions, constitutional political economy, Apartheid
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