The Cadario Visiting Lecture in Public Policy: Kathleen Thelen on Employer Organization and the Law: Historical Legacies and the Long Shadow of the American Courts
February 26, 2021
By Liliana Bechtold
What makes American labour different? When investigating American exceptionalism, the idea that it may have more to do with the distinctive features of American employers than it does the country’s unions or working class is a new perspective. Examining the legal framework in which American employers developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries may be the key to understanding the unique character of contemporary capitalism and labour.
On March 2, leading political scientist Kathleen Thelen will explore the question of American exceptionalism and related issues as part of the Munk School’s annual Cadario Visiting Lecture in Public Policy. Thelen, the Ford Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is a leading scholar on comparative political economy and has served as president of the American Political Science Association, chair of the Council of European Studies, and president of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-economics. The lecture will be moderated by the Munk School’s Peter Loewen, with introductory remarks by Carolyn Tuohy, professor emeritus of Political Science and distinguished fellow at the Munk School.
Thelen will be speaking about the findings of her paper, Employer Organization and the Law: American Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective. The paper compares America and Germany to investigate how legal developments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries shaped employer organization and firm development in both countries. Thelen examines the profound and enduring impact of the American courts on the organization, goals, and strategies of American employers, and American political economy and labour organization more broadly.
“As we live through this critical moment and try to contemplate what lies ahead for advanced capitalism and democratic governance, Kathleen Thelen is one of the scholars leading the way,” says Tuohy. “Her work shows that the capacity of our institutions to address present challenges — whether it be the rise of ‘platform capitalism,’ precarious work, or the ability to mobilize collective resources in response to unexpected shocks like COVID-19 — has been shaped through a long course of historical evolution. That course has varied across nations, and no one has done more to draw comparative lessons from that varied experience than Professor Thelen.”
The Cadario Visiting Lecture in Public Policy was established through the extraordinary generosity of Paul Cadario, distinguished fellow in global innovation at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.