nt raise the probability of worker disorganization (Western: 194-195). Also, the increasing volatility of world marketscalls for more flexible labor arrangements, such as those common in Northern Italy. The informality of these labor relationshipsdoes not mix well with traditional, industry-wide union representation. Western blames the decline of unions on the effects of theeconomic changes on the political identification of potential union members, citing the erosion of class as an organizing principle asa reason for lower union membership (Western: 179). Some unions remain very powerful. Small unions populated by skilledworkers who are critical to production, such as the German metal workers, are often able to win large concessions fromemployers. But the decline in overall union membership and the decreasing ability of different unions to agree on broad,macroeconomic policies have hurt labor's ability to participate in formulating corporatist solutions to economic problems. The shift to a post-industrial economy that has fragmented unions has created parallel fragmentation within the mass-integration political parties that have governed Western European countries in the post-war period. Parties find their traditional membershipincreasingly divided on the use of fiscal policy, maintenance of exchange rates and other crucial areas of government policy. The internationalization of markets has also diminished the State's capacity for intervention in the economic sphere. Thus not onlylabor, but also government finds itself handicapped in its efforts to continue the strategy of corporatist bargaining.Unable to control both unemployment and inflation without labor cooperation, governments have limited their efforts to one or the other. Due to external constraints such as large fiscal deficits and the Maastricht criteria for participation in the EuropeanMonetary Union, most Western European countries have chosen to control prices at the co...
