Introduction

From the 1990s onwards, several collective agreements labelled as ‘social pacts’ have been concluded in Europe between social partners at different levels and on various topics (mainly: wage moderation, work conditions, employment and flexibility). Beyond their heterogeneity, what unites them is they are explicitly linked to the construction of Europe: at the beginning, to the process of convergence towards the Euro that started at Maastricht in 1991 and to the monetary stability advocated and supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB). They are all calling for a fresh interpretation of what could become the industrial relations in the near future of European countries. This chapter would like to pose the terms of this question in its full scope. A well-established theory is a candidate for such an interpretation – the so-called ‘neo-corporatism’, which was very much in favour in the 1970s. Is a simple adaptation of this assumption needed – for instance, toward more decentralisation and micro-bargaining – or have we to search for a more radical move?

Section 2 recalls the main features of neo-corporatism in industrial relations and suggests that the social pacts and other similar agreements in the 1990s do not fit very well with this approach. In order to confront to empirical evidence, section 3 describes the process of decentralising the social concertation in Italy, its numerous types of agreements and the diversity of their relevant features.