Puissance and Pouvoir: Two Aspects of Power in Collective Bargaining
In spite of their centrality for the study of collective bargaining, the treatment of puissance and pouvoir (power as a capacity and as its actualization) in the field of Industrial Relations has been unsatisfactory to date. This state of affairs can be explained partly by the absence of theoretical common ground allowing for a structured accumulation of empirical findings, and partly by the fact that the balance between labour and management in contemporary collective bargaining regimes has been taken for granted by most mainstream academics. After three decades of « transformation » of industrial relations, considering that industrial conflict is still at the very heart of labour-management relations, the study of power must get back on the agenda if we are to ascertain the capacity of the actors to agree on reasonable terms of employment.Based on a synthesis of the relevant literature in the field of Industrial Relations and of some major contributions in Political Sociology, the article offers some conceptual basis for a critical, interactionist study of puissance and pouvoir in collective bargaining. The treatment of these two notions takes into account the dependence of the parties as well as their resources and strategic capacity. In the spirit of the threefold mission of Industrial Relations since J. R. Commons (teaching, research and intervention), the proposal contained in this article should contribute to a better understanding of the strategies and of the delicate balance between labour and management in collective bargaining.