Starting in the mid-19th Century, elites and reformers often alluded to “the labor question,” which was rooted in the system of wage labor that produced contending classes of employers and employees as industrialization unfolded. The labor question involved both social justice (how workers would be treated as a class) and social order (how class conflict could be managed). Despite many similarities, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K and the U.S. came up with dramatically different answers to the labor question. Gary Mucciaroni explores the paths these nations took and those they rejected in this lecture, in order to illuminate how and why they developed divergent industrial relations regimes.

Mucciaroni is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Master of Public Policy Program at Temple University. He is the author of four books and several articles on public policymaking in the United States and specifically on policies related to employment, public assistance, taxes, trade, telecommunications, LGBTQ rights, and abortion.