The state and its unions: Reassessing the antecedents, development, and consequences of New Deal labor law

A new order of labour relations lay at the heart of the New Deal. This article seeks to re-evaluate a well-known heterodox argument about why this order emerged and an associated critique of its consequences that has now influenced our understanding of the New Deal for over a quarter of a century. It examines the impact of adopting different notions of pluralism as well as different comparative reference points. It considers the effects of judicial hostility and early ideological influences on American unions. And it argues that there is a wide variation in the consequences of state intervention in general and legal regulation in particular. Small differences in the law can have big effects.