1990 Volume 32 Issue 3 Pages 16-26
The prose ss of formalisation of British industrial relations during the 19th: century has been theorised from 'collectivist' point of view, which put stress on the historical tendency towards legal institutionalisation of trade union and collective bargaining and the rather organic re-formation of the society through social and industrial bodies. This kind of argument is basically for 'astringentist'. National and historical peculiarities share only a minor portion of importance. This article will pay a proper attention on these point in terms of the British legislative policy for organising industrial relations. The following two points the article tries to demonstrate. First, the logical basement of such legislative policy throughout the 19th century was 'market individualism' which treated every British subjects as an independent and self-respectable 'citizen', and assumed industrial relations as a mere assemblage of numerous atomic employment relationships. Secondly, a series of legislations on trade union may be seen as a process of cultivating working population individually as well prepared 'citizen'. The theoretical implications of this analetical article should be: first, the strong heritage of British individualism has denned the patern of British 'industrial democracy' and formed British peculiarity in this policy field, and secondly, because of this, the strategical target of collective formalisation of work and production process had been largely omitted from British legislative policy.
