Leadership and democracy among the trade unions

Democratic government is considered possible in middle class societies. In the trade union context, democratic mechanisms are expected to operate only in unions whose members are well-educated, have economic as well as job security, and the status gap between the leader and the member is not wide. In the modern form of democracy, some Western researchers find that only the form of the union is democratic but in practice the iron law of oligarchy is found operating. Marx, Engels, Bulcharin and Weber view that certain obstacles arise in demo cratisation of unions in the preliminary stages of unionism, but in their ultimate analysis they agree that unions operate democratically. In this regard, Lipset is of the opinion that the institutionalised 'two party system' supported by informed and interested rank and file lead to union democracy. In the midst of these postulates, the main indices of union democracy formulated are: a) Constitutional framework of the unions, b) decision making, and c) participation of the leaders and the members.

Methodologically, the problem is approached from a structural-historical and interactional perspective based on 'ex-post-facto' model.

The study indicates that democratic government is possible in trade unions, provided some conditions such as formal democratic guarantees and a history of democratic functioning are assured. It is also known that prevalence of democratic tendencies is influenced by a variety of factors such as outside leadership with political contacts, schooling and income. Informal learning through work, union and political experience and leadership training appears to increase leaders' participation rate.