Capitals War of Position and the Destruction of the New Deal System

Abstract

It has been thirty years since President Ronald Reagan busted the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO). Since then, the power of large employers has continued to grow while labor weakened, and the power imbalance between the two is as great as at any point since World War II. Barack Obama’s 2008 election and a strong Democratic Congressional majority provided a brief window for significant labor law reform; however, for the third time since the 1970s, Democrats disappointed their union friends by failing to marshal the votes needed to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), despite its potential benefits to workers and the Democratic Party itself.