Given the underdeveloped attention to political and
policy origins of aggregate work time patterns in the
work-time literature, and the lack of any significant
attention to work-time in the broader comparative
political economy literature, this paper has pursues a
broad mandate: to bring more politics into the study of
work-time, and work-time into the study of politics.
Using data allowing better comparison among OECD
countries, we argue that study of working time needs to
consider annual hours per employee and per working-age
person, shaped by a range of social as well as direct
work-time policies. We also argue that union interest in
worktime reduction is more ambiguous than customarily
supposed, with union interests likely mediated by a
range of other conditions, especially female labor
market participation and female union membership.
Finally, we argue that attention to party systems and
policy clusters should begin with consideration of
Social Democratic, Liberal and Christian Democratic
worlds of work time. pdf