Robin Archer is Director of the Graduate Program in Political Sociology at the London School of Economics. He was previously Fellow in Politics at Corpus Christi College at Oxford. His publications include the co-edited Out of Apathy: Voices of the New Left 30 Years On (Verso, 1989); Economic Democracy (Oxford, 1995); and the recent Why Is There No Labor Party in the United States? (Princeton, 2008).
Why is there no labor party in the United States? Elsewhere these parties were established in the late 19th or early 20th century, and, ever since, this question has been at the heart of a major debate about the “exceptional” nature of American politics and society. Drawing on his recently published work, Professor Archer will show how a new comparative approach suggests some unexpected answers.