Limits Of Bargaining

Analyses the dynamics of the capital-labour bargaining process in the context of the changing nature of the state and market as a result of the adoption of policies of liberalisation and globalisation in India. The analytical point of departure is the nature of collective bargaining in the organised sector of West Bengal since economic liberalisation.

Limits of Bargaining is an original addition to the political economy analysis of capital-labour relations in the organised industrial sector in the context of economic liberalisation in India. It analyses the dynamics of the capital-labour bargaining process in the context of the changing nature of the state and market as a result of adoption of policies of liberalisation and globalisation for the last two and half decades. It examines the nature of collective bargaining and analyses the underlying structural-political conditions that shape the capital-labour relations. Based on original empirical material from West Bengal, a state long considered pro-labour, the book presents bargaining between capital and labour as endogenous to the interplay of the triad of the market, technology and the institutions of the state. It illustrates everyday interactions between labour and management, different unions and outside actors that shape collective bargaining, and highlights the negotiation, appropriations and compromises that shape bargaining at the operational level.

In the global marketplace, negotiation frequently takes place across cultural boundaries, yet negotiation theory has traditionally been grounded in Western culture. This book, which provides an in-depth review of the field of negotiation theory, expands current thinking to include cross-cultural perspectives. The contents of the book reflect the diversity of negotiation—research-negotiator cognition, motivation, emotion, communication, power and disputing, intergroup relationships, third parties, justice, technology, and social dilemmas—and provides new insight into negotiation theory, questioning assumptions, expanding constructs, and identifying limits not apparent from working exclusively within one culture. The book is organized in three sections and pairs chapters on negotiation theory with chapters on culture. The first part emphasizes psychological processes—cognition, motivation, and emotion. Part II examines the negotiation process. The third part emphasizes the social context of negotiation. A final chapter synthesizes the main themes of the book to illustrate how scholars and practitioners can capitalize on the synergy between culture and negotiation research.

This book brings an exciting and innovative new approach to the study of politics today. It introduces political bargaining, a process at the heart of all political and economic exchanges in contemporary society and the very essence of politics itself, to provide a new framework and fresh insights to modern political science. The authors trace the prevalence of bargaining processes in politics from the abstract level of individual human interaction and the `state of nature′ to the more concrete political or institutionalized level. They introduce students to theory -- the basic models of game theory, rational choice theory and positivist approaches; practice -- the practical manifestations of political bargaining in everyday national and international political life; and process -- its setting, the interests of the players involved, the conditions and properties that affect their calculations and, consequently, their ability to obtain desired outcomes. Political Bargaining provides students with the basic tools for learning about and participating in politics today by richly illustrating how the authoritative allocation of scarce resources is arrived at through a complex bargaining process between competing interests in society. It will be essential reading for student and lecturer alike across political science and the social sciences more widely.