Institutional transfer: industrial relations in Eastern Germany

Can industrial relations be successfully transferred between countries. Thispaper reviews experience in eastern Germany since unification in 1990. Theevidence is that the close integration in western Germany between the twoelements of the 'dual system' of interest representation - trade unions andworks councils - has not been replicated in the east. Hence the formalidentity of institutions does not prevent substantial differences in theirfunctioning. This may be explained both in terms of the adverse economiccircumstances in the east since unification, and of the distinctive socio-cultural inheritance of the former system.