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ommunitarian philosophy that underpins the Third Way (Smith, 1997). Labour has a role to play, as does the enhancing of worker rights, so long as it is recognised that the common goal is economic efficiency and flexibility. In this respect, some argue that this political development carries elements of the New Right legacy (Driver and Martell, 1998).

The Labour Relations of Partnership: some American and British influences
Partnership as a practice and ideology has various origins and precedents. It cannot simply be reduced to the transfer of a series of techniques and 'philosophical' concepts from the USA. The changing political context, transformations in management strategy, and the ongoing challenge to western economies are all seen to necessitate a new dialogue within the employment relationship based on an awareness of 'either side's' contribution. Nonetheless, it is possible to identify a number of important reference points. The publication of Kochan and Osterman's The Mutual Gains Enterprise, for example, offers an analytical framework that provides a legitimate role for trade unions in the management of change in (traditionally anti-union) American businesses. This analysis emerges out of the strategic choice literature of the 1980s, which, broadly speaking, argued that regardless of the problematic economic context of the decade managers and unions could strategically develop alternatives and responses at various levels of the organisation (Kochan et al, 1986). The literature on partnership continues this trajectory arguing that there are a range of 'excellent' firms in the USA that have achieved this status due to their collaboration with unions (Kochan and Osterman, 1994). For Kochan and Osterman, mutual gains enterprises train their staff more, involve them more in decision making and treat them in accordance with a broad set of principles that are based on social justice. Trade unions have an important role to play in facilitating this. Crucially, the constituent elements of the mutual gains enterprise can only be delivered, according to Kochan and Osterman, if mutual trust exists between an employer and its workforce.

Kochan and Osterman's account is as much prescriptive as descriptive: it calls to the attention of managerial constituencies the benefits of sustaining dialogue with unions. Within the UK context the emergence of interest in, and enthusiasm, for partnership has been summarised by Ackers and Payne (1998). For them, partnership provides trade unions with an historic opportunity to 'come in from the cold'. Their argument rests on the fact that the concept of partnership should not be seen as being politically closed. Partnership can be contested and engaged with by unions: it can be used to deepen their institutional role at various levels of the employment relation and the state. In effect, unions should 'play back the rhetoric of employee involvement and become active agents in the workplace and wider society' (Ackers and Payne, 1998: 527). This leitmotif of mutuality has not, however, been without its critics, with a number of commentators identifying significant difficulties, and dangers, for trade unions in adopting the partnership approach (Kelly, 1996; Marks et al, 1998; Taylor and Ramsey, 1998). Kelly (1996), for example, notes that the espousal of co-operation rings somewhat hollow compared to the hostility and marginalisatio