POLITICAL ACTIVISM OF CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN UNION: CAUSES AND REACHES

Milosavljević Aleksandar (Autor je doktorand na Fakultetu političkih nauka Univerziteta u Beogradu), aleks.fabius@gmail.com

In the first decades of the 21st century, the trend of decreasing power of trade unions continued as a reflection of long-term structural changes in the world economy, which are variously depreciated in European countries. Faced with very unfavorable action context, the trade unions are forced to use many different models of the revitalization of social and political power with various results. Starting from the old thesis that it represents a potential answer to a more defensive position regarding the state and the employers, possibilities and means of realizing trade unions\' political activism are examined in this paper as a collective term for all means that affect the adoption of important political decisions. In European countries there is no identical form of it, whereas possibilities and results of its usage are conditioned by 1) institutions\' design, 2) constellation and credibility of the political process\' actors, and 3) capacity of the trade unions.

Keywords: trade unions, Europe, political activism, political function, political power, political process, the labour market, public sector, strike, corporativism