training. While industrial cooperation was a popular ideology across the industrialized world in 1890s, German employers fought within themselves, during a period when desires for employers’ national industrial policies motivated firms elsewhere to join forces. In the early Twentieth-Century, some companies pursued intra-company, welfare capitalist strategies to train their workers (Dunleavy and Welskopp 2007). This complicated subsequent efforts to introduce a national training framework and kept control over skills development in the hands of the handicraft sectors and those large firms that sought to develop in-house training. First, the political features of the German state contributed to the emergence of sectoral rather than national coordination. Political fragmentation federalism and regionally-dominated – political parties prevented the emergence of a dedicated national business party; employers – remained dispersed across parties, and no single manager of the bourgeoisie unified the corporate voice. The party system with its inadequate coverage of societal interests meant that – – bureaucrats and politicians lacked incentives to nurture a single peak association; instead, party activists created dueling associations. The Central Association of German Employers was developed by a leader of the Free Conservative Party, in conjunction with Bismarck and the Bund der Industriellen was nurtured by the National Liberal before Party’s Gustav Stresemann. Shortly the German revolution in 1918, business-oriented bureaucrats tried to unify employers into a peak association, the Reich Association of German Industry (the RDI). But business associations which in Germany from the early on were strongly differentiated in industrial and employers’ associations (Industrieverbände vs. Arbeitgeberverbände) continued to be distributed across parties and divided politically along regional lines (such as the Democratic Party, the Catholic Center Party, the German Party and the German Party) (Turner, 1969, People’s National People’s
training. While industrial cooperation was a popular ideology across the industrialized world in 1890s, German employers fought within themselves, during a period when employers’ desires for national industrial policies motivated firms elsewhere to join forces. In the early Twentieth-Century, some companies pursued intra-company, welfare capitalist strategies to train their workers (Dunleavy and Welskopp 2007). This complicated subsequent efforts to introduce a national training framework and kept control over skills development in the hands of the handicraft sectors and those large firms that sought to develop in-house training. First, the political features of the German state contributed to the emergence of sectoral rather than national coordination. Political fragmentation – federalism and regionally-dominated political parties – prevented the emergence of a dedicated national business party; employers remained dispersed across parties, and no single manager of the bourgeoisie unified the corporate voice. The party system – with its inadequate coverage of societal interests – meant that bureaucrats and politicians lacked incentives to nurture a single peak association; instead, party activists created dueling associations. The Central Association of German Employers was developed by a leader of the Free Conservative Party, in conjunction with Bismarck and the Bund der Industriellen was nurtured by the National Liberal Party’s Gustav Stresemann. Shortly before the German revolution in 1918, business-oriented bureaucrats tried to unify employers into a peak association, the Reich Association of German Industry (the RDI). But business associations which in Germany from the early on were strongly differentiated in industrial and employers’ associations (Industrieverbände vs. Arbeitgeberverbände) continued to be distributed across parties and divided politically along regional lines (such as the Democratic Party, the Catholic Center Party, the German People’s Party and the German National People’s Party) (Turner, 1969,