Why is there no labor party in the United States? / Robin Archer.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [299]-336) and index.

Labor-based Parties -- Explaining by Comparing -- Some Possible Objections -- Historical Overview -- Mutual Awareness -- Chatter Summary -- Ch. 1. Workers -- Prosperity -- Skilled and Unskilled Workers -- The Effect of the New Unionism -- Workers and Farmers -- Ch. 2. Race -- The Extent of Racial Hostility -- The Effect in Australia -- The Effect in the United States Compared -- European Immigration -- Ch. 3. Elections and the Constitution -- Early Suffrage -- The Electoral System -- Multimember Districts -- The Case of Illinois -- Federalism -- Presidentialism -- Ch. 4. The Courts -- The Court Repression Thesis -- Labor Law and the Courts -- Union Attitudes towards Politics -- The Effect of Court Repression -- Ch. 5. Repression -- Two Theses on Repression -- The Extent of Repression -- Soldiers and Police -- The Effect of Repression in Australia -- The Effect in the United States Compared -- The Effect in Illinois Compared -- Complexities and Qualifications -- Ch. 6. Liberalism -- Social Egalitarianism -- Individual Freedom -- Ch. 7. Religion -- The Extent of Religious Involvement -- The Nature of Religious Beliefs -- Protestant Clergy -- Catholic Clergy -- The Response of Labor Leaders to Clerical Hostility -- Religion and the Party System -- The Late 1880s and the Early 1890s -- The Effect in the United States -- The Effect in Australia Compared -- Ch. 8. Socialism -- Left-Wing Reform Ideologies -- Labor Parties and Left-Wing Factionalism -- Socialists and Unionists in the United States -- Socialists and Unionists in Australia Compared -- Conclusion -- Negative Findings -- Positive Findings -- American Politics and Society -- App. Notes and Sources for the Tables.

"Why is the United States the only advanced capitalist country with no labor party? This question is one of the great enduring puzzles of American political development, and it lies at the heart of a fundamental debate about the nature of American society. Tackling this debate head-on, Robin Archer puts forward a new explanation for why there is no American labor party - an explanation that suggests that much of the conventional wisdom about "American exceptionalism" is untenable." "Conventional explanations rely on comparison with Europe, Archer challenges these explanations by comparing the United States with its most similar New World counterpart - Australia. This comparison is particularly revealing, not only because the United States and Australia share many fundamental historical, political, and social characteristics, but also because Australian unions established a labor party in the late nineteenth century, just when American unions, against a common backdrop of industrial defeat and depression, came closest to doing something similar." "Archer examines each of the factors that could help explain the American outcome, and his systematic comparison yields unexpected conclusions. He argues that prosperity, democracy, liberalism, and racial hostility often promoted the very changes they are said to have obstructed. And he shows that it was not these characteristics that left the United States without a labor party, but, rather, the powerful impact of repression, religion, and political sectarianism."--BOOK JACKET.