Convergence theory, labour movements, and corporatism: The case of housing

This study undertakes a statistical analysis of housing policy and housing market developments in 18 advanced industrial countries comparing the early 1970s with the mid‐1980s. The article applies three modes of theoretical explanation, namely convergence theory, labour movement theory, and an institutional model based on theories of corporatism, focusing upon the first mode. The results show that contrary to convergence theory and its associated thesis of a particular “logic of industrialism”, institutional and ideological factors loom large. Analysing the structure of the market, ideological factors are found to be of greatest importance. At the same time, housing market processes and the character of housing policy are primarily determined by institutional factors, that is, the way in which market actors have been organized into or out of the housing policy system. Notes This study forms part of a research project under way at The National Swedish Institute for Building Research, analysing Swedish housing policy and housing market developments since the early 1970s in a comparative cross‐national perspective. An earlier version of this article was presented at the international housing conference “Housing, Policy, and Urban Innovation” in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 27 June‐1 July 1988.