The historical examples par excellence of close party-interest group relationships, both in Europe and elsewhere, were left-wing parties and trade unions. In recent decades, however, both wings of the historical labour movement have, it seems, seen their interests diverge. Many have predicted their organisational ties will loosen, not least due to structural changes in the economy and labour market. Existing empirical studies suggest that party-union links have indeed declined in many cases, but more comparative research is needed to describe systematically and precisely the development across countries. This paper reports from an on-going comparative study of party-trade union relationships in 13 different countries: it presents our conceptualizations, measurements and preliminary empirical findings as regards the strength/weakness of links today and, to some extent, over time. Our focus is on the more or less organized links that may connect decision-makers and/or decision-making bodies on both sides.
