This book examines how labor policies were made in the US, Germany, and Japan during the 1980s.The United States, Germany, and Japan differ strikingly in how their governments relate to their economies. Interviews with more than 350 key labor policy organizations in all three countries reveal, however, similar conflict divisions between business and labor interests as well as distinctive patterns.The United States, Germany, and Japan differ strikingly in how their governments relate to their economies. Interviews with more than 350 key labor policy organizations in all three countries reveal, however, similar conflict divisions between business and labor interests as well as distinctive patterns.The United States, Germany, and Japan, the world's three most powerful and successful free market societies, differ strikingly in how their governments relate to their economies. Comparing Policy Networks reports the results of collaborative research by three teams investigating the social organization and policymaking processes of national labor policy domains in the United States, Germany, and Japan during the 1980s. Through interviews with more than 350 key labor policy organizations in all three countries, the authors reveal similar conflict divisions between business and labor interests but also distinctive patterns within each nation.List of tables and figures; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Policy-making in the organizational state; 2. Three labor policy domains; 3. Finding domain actors; 4. organizational policy interests; 5. Policy webs: networks, reputations, and activities; 6. Fighting collectively: action sets and events; 7. Exchange processes; 8. Power structures; 9. Variations on a theme of organizational states; Appendix 1. Legislative procedures in three nations; Appendix 2. Labor policy domain organizations; Appendix 3. Labor policy domain issues; Appendix 4. Labor policy domain legislative bills; Footnotes; References; Tables and figures. Comparing Policy lc-