George Ross – författare

The face of today's France does not resemble its forebear of a quarter century ago; it is more like its European neighbors. Searching for the New France provides an in-depth, historical account of the changes that have swept France over the past three decades and explores the political challenges that confront the country today. An array of distinguished international scholars examine changes in French politics, society, and the economy. The compilation is both comprehensive and topical in its coverage, and is unique in the broad-based, historical, and interpretive nature of its essays. The study will be invaluable to a wide range of scholars and students in the social sciences

Workers and Communists in France analyzes the relationship between the Parti Communiste Français (PCF) and Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT), France’s largest and most influential trade union organization. All trade union movements in advanced capitalist societies have had to develop mechanisms to achieve their goals within the labor market and the political realm. The nature of such mechanisms varies dramatically from society to society. George Ross examines a trade union movement whose philosophy and actions are derived from the political and organizational perspectives of the Communist Third International tradition. Workers and Communists in France submits the modern history of the relationship between the PCF and the CGT to the complex test of a cost-benefit analysis. How well has the linkage between party and trade union worked for French Communism, for French workers, for the French left, and for French society?  Since World War II, the ties between the PDF and the CGT have enabled them to promote and perpetuate sharp notions of class and class conflict among French workers and French society in general. The CGT has been the central agency through which French Communism has shaped debate about the nature of French society, a debate with profound effects on the structure of French politics and intellectual life. On the other hand, the basic contradiction between the Communist Party’s desire to use the CGT for partisan purposes and the CGT’s need to generate mass support has never been resolved. This failure may have followed from the very structure of the relationship between the PCF and the CGT, as well as from consistently inappropriate strategic calculations by the PCF.   Ross concludes that the Communist Third International's concept of the link between party and trade union is becoming obsolete. The future of Communism in France may well depend, therefore, on a reappraisal of the party’s relationship with organized labor.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.

The View from Inside: A French Communist Cell in Crisis by Jane Jenson and George Ross offers a rare ethnographic portrait of the Parti Communiste Français (PCF) at the grassroots in the late 1970s. Based on sustained participant observation with the militants of Cellule Danielle Casanova in Paris, the book follows “ordinary” party members—foot soldiers rather than leaders—as they grapple with the contradictions of Eurocommunism, internal reform, and the PCF’s stubborn commitment to democratic centralism. Far from ordinary in their political commitments, these activists became both advocates of modernization and casualties of its suppression within the party.Through detailed reconstructions of meetings, debates, and informal exchanges, Jenson and Ross capture the texture of rank-and-file political life: disputes over union strategy, the role of women, sexuality, and relations with the Soviet Union; mounting frustrations with party leadership; and the rituals of the Twenty-third Congress that codified decline. By foregrounding the lived experience of militants, the book shows how efforts to create change from below collided with entrenched hierarchies, leading to disillusionment and the erosion of the PCF’s electoral strength. More than a local story, The View from Inside chronicles a turning point in French politics and European Communism, illuminating how crisis at the grassroots mirrored the broader unraveling of a once-powerful movement.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.

Workers and Communists in France analyzes the relationship between the Parti Communiste Français (PCF) and Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT), France’s largest and most influential trade union organization. All trade union movements in advanced capitalist societies have had to develop mechanisms to achieve their goals within the labor market and the political realm. The nature of such mechanisms varies dramatically from society to society. George Ross examines a trade union movement whose philosophy and actions are derived from the political and organizational perspectives of the Communist Third International tradition. Workers and Communists in France submits the modern history of the relationship between the PCF and the CGT to the complex test of a cost-benefit analysis. How well has the linkage between party and trade union worked for French Communism, for French workers, for the French left, and for French society?  Since World War II, the ties between the PDF and the CGT have enabled them to promote and perpetuate sharp notions of class and class conflict among French workers and French society in general. The CGT has been the central agency through which French Communism has shaped debate about the nature of French society, a debate with profound effects on the structure of French politics and intellectual life. On the other hand, the basic contradiction between the Communist Party’s desire to use the CGT for partisan purposes and the CGT’s need to generate mass support has never been resolved. This failure may have followed from the very structure of the relationship between the PCF and the CGT, as well as from consistently inappropriate strategic calculations by the PCF.   Ross concludes that the Communist Third International's concept of the link between party and trade union is becoming obsolete. The future of Communism in France may well depend, therefore, on a reappraisal of the party’s relationship with organized labor.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.

The View from Inside: A French Communist Cell in Crisis by Jane Jenson and George Ross offers a rare ethnographic portrait of the Parti Communiste Français (PCF) at the grassroots in the late 1970s. Based on sustained participant observation with the militants of Cellule Danielle Casanova in Paris, the book follows “ordinary” party members—foot soldiers rather than leaders—as they grapple with the contradictions of Eurocommunism, internal reform, and the PCF’s stubborn commitment to democratic centralism. Far from ordinary in their political commitments, these activists became both advocates of modernization and casualties of its suppression within the party.Through detailed reconstructions of meetings, debates, and informal exchanges, Jenson and Ross capture the texture of rank-and-file political life: disputes over union strategy, the role of women, sexuality, and relations with the Soviet Union; mounting frustrations with party leadership; and the rituals of the Twenty-third Congress that codified decline. By foregrounding the lived experience of militants, the book shows how efforts to create change from below collided with entrenched hierarchies, leading to disillusionment and the erosion of the PCF’s electoral strength. More than a local story, The View from Inside chronicles a turning point in French politics and European Communism, illuminating how crisis at the grassroots mirrored the broader unraveling of a once-powerful movement.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.

Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is one of the most important developments in modern European politics. Building on two decades of monetary integration it transfers monetary policy, a core function of the modern state, to an independent European Central Bank (ECB) and limits member states' fiscal policy discretion. The ECB insists that growth and employment depend on 'flexibilizing' Europe's labor markets through deep reforms of the social policies and employment relations which comprise the 'European social model'. Member states retain authority over these areas at the heart of national politics, but how will EMU affect the domestic politics of institutional change? Will EMU reinforce de-regulation and retrenchment or will it facilitate reforms that maintain the protections against economic insecurity, inequality, and unilateral employer power the European model has provided? To address these questions, a transatlantic team of leading experts analyzes the evolving tensions between monetary integration and national social policies.

Jacques Delors has been the most successful President of the European Commission in the history of the European Community. The events of his time in Brussels may have constituted the best chance yet to create a new supranational order to consolidate European political and social arrangements. Jacques Delors and European Integration reconsiders the last decade of EC history, and the Maastricht period in particular, from the point of view of Delors's unfolding strategy. The book's remarkable data sources include the author's observations of the day-to-day work of the Commission under Delors and access to key personnel and documents. The author explores the ways in which Delors and his team tried to capitalize upon the complex openings in Europe's political opportunity structures from the mid-1980s. The "1992" programme to complete the Single Market galvanized European energies and contributed to renewed optimism. Maastricht and its sequels have proven less successful. Jacques Delors and European Integration follows processes around the Maastricht Treaty from inside, observing the complex system of European institutions at work. What kind of turning point will Maastricht turn out to be? The book attempts to reach a conclusion about what, in retrospect, will certainly be seen as one of the most daring experiments at transnational politics of modern times.

First published in 1984. This book represents a major study of union responses to the economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. Abjuring governmental or managerial outlooks, it argues that unions, as representatives of essential producer groups, would be central to the renegotiation of the economic world. The work also stresses the importance of situating union responses to the crisis within the socio-historical evolution of their political economies during the rise and decline of the post-war economic boom. The Social Democratic affiliation of unions in Britain, West Germany and Sweden make them particularly comparable. This title will be of interest to students of politics and economics.

First published in 1984. This book represents a major study of union responses to the economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. Abjuring governmental or managerial outlooks, it argues that unions, as representatives of essential producer groups, would be central to the renegotiation of the economic world. The work also stresses the importance of situating union responses to the crisis within the socio-historical evolution of their political economies during the rise and decline of the post-war economic boom. The Social Democratic affiliation of unions in Britain, West Germany and Sweden make them particularly comparable. This title will be of interest to students of politics and economics.

First published in 1982, Unions, Change and Crisis represents the first detailed, comparative, historical and theoretically grounded study of two of the major trade union movements of Europe. It brings together the results of the first part of the first major study from Harvard University’s Centre for European Studies.The book explores, first individually and then comparatively, the evolution of the French and Italian Union movements through the end of the 1970s. It will be of particular interest for students of trade unions, industrial relations and political economy in France and Italy, but also those interested in the comparative analysis of advanced industrial democracies more generally.

First published in 1982, Unions, Change and Crisis represents the first detailed, comparative, historical and theoretically grounded study of two of the major trade union movements of Europe. It brings together the results of the first part of the first major study from Harvard University’s Centre for European Studies.The book explores, first individually and then comparatively, the evolution of the French and Italian Union movements through the end of the 1970s. It will be of particular interest for students of trade unions, industrial relations and political economy in France and Italy, but also those interested in the comparative analysis of advanced industrial democracies more generally.

European union movements played a central role in promoting a "Europeanmodel of society", a humane industrial relations system, high labor standards, generous welfare states, and collective political representation which reached its pinnacle in the post-World War II era. The recent shift to lower growth, rising unemployment, renewed European integration, neo-liberalism, and globalization has challenged this "European Model" and the unions' place in it. These essays, written by some of the leading scholars in the field, examine responses of six major European union movements to the dramatic changes in economic and political conditions in the last two decades. They are the result of a group research effort and are based on a common framework which lends it quite an exceptional coherence.