Convergence of World Stoppages – A Global Perspective

Abstract

This paper analyses the changing pattern of work stoppages at a global level for the period 1960 to 2002. Rather than analysing the pattern for individual economies, it analyses the data for a two-fold division of the world’s economy: namely the North American economy (comprising the USA and Canada) and the rest of the non-North American world economy (comprising the 36 economies for which data are available). This involves an approach to the analysis of international data and an accompanying perspective on global interdependence and convergence that has not thus far been explored. The evidence presented suggests that these two parts of the global economy display broadly converging patterns of stoppage rates. It is suggested that the converging pattern of stoppages is, in turn, symptomatic of a general worldwide convergence of general politico-economic perceptions broadly in favour of, or at least receptive to, an approach to political-economy management that might be summarily labelled: neoliberal.