Industrial Rights: A Neglected Facet of Citizenship Theory

Theoretical treatment of citizenship, beginning with the pathbreaking work of T.H. Marshall, has made short shrift of industrial citizenship. Treating industrial citizenship as subsidiary to civil, political and social citizenship as well as limiting it to the realm of trade union organization and collective bargaining are serious shortcomings. Citizens of advanced societies need also to be shielded against wage competition from underdeveloped societies. The alternative to industrial rights is that the advanced societies will be shown the image of their future by the less developed societies.