La grève - en studie om strejker i Frankrike

Sammanfattning: Strikes are according to Lindvall most probable in countries where 35 to 40% of the working people are members in trade unions. France has shown to be a deviant case to the empirical findings of Lindvall with low number of members in trade unions, but high number of strikes.  The overarching question is: Can the political culture explain the high number of strikes in France and if so how? Ronald Inglehart's theory of political culture as well as the theory Civic culture by Almond and Verba have been used.  Considering the empirical findings and with support of the theories used I conclude that political culture to an extent can explain the high number of strikes in France. There are no implications that trust in others as well as institutions, government and political parties have an impact on strikes. The economic situation of the household or the state are not found to be explanatory factors either. Dissatisfaction with one's life situation, work situation, or situation in the country did not either show any statistical significance. When analysing the answers to the questionnary I can state that the respondents not only supported strikes to have better work conditions and see changes. They also went on strike to support others, because they considered it as a duty and because they found it important to show participation. There were also those who considered that it was important to celebrate the French history. Strike is also supported by people who did not go on strike themselves. It is clearly understood that strikes are respected by a majority.  The conclusion is that if you have a country with a democratic system and a political culture which to a greater extent is participatory ( even if there are subcultres or tendencies of parochial and subject culture ) and the historical context as France does have, that might well be the explanation for its high number of strikes. The reason for France being the deviant case can lie within the combination of its political culture as well as its history. It cannot be stated that a specific political culture alone explains strike density. It can however be stated that specific variables are seen to have more impact or vary with higher number of strikes and these are in this study positive expectations and satisfaction with the democratic system which are characteristic of participatory political cultures.  Keywords: strikes, civic culture, political culture