Conflict Regulation in the Industrial Sphere: An Indirect Test of Dahrendorf's Theory

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to empirically evaluate Dahrendorf's notion of conflict regulation in advanced industrial societies. Using a measure of strike volume as an indicator of conflict in the industrial sphere, I look at samples of eight “developing” and eight “advanced” countries, generate a composite scale for the strike volume measure for each of the two samples, and then make comparisons between samples. Dahrendorf's thesis of conflict regulation would suggest that the more advanced societies would experience reduced or stabilized levels of industrial conflict. On examination of the data reported in this paper, however, I find a statistically significant difference in levels of conflict between the two groups, with the advanced countries showing the larger strike volume. In the conclusions, I suggest some possible implications of the research for Dahrendorf's model.