Public sector employees, as part of both society and government, offer an excellent case study to test the autonomy of politics from society. After rigorous research, André Blais, Donald E. Blake, and Stéphane Dion confirm that in the great majority of cases the Left is indeed more generous to employees than the Right, with some unusual and provocative exceptions. There is an alliance, albeit a loose one, between public sector employees and the Left, an alliance consistent over time in Europe and North America.

Governments, Parties, and Public Sector Employees also shows that when the Left has to choose between more employment and higher wages for public employees, it tends to choose the former, suggesting that ideology is more important than supporters' pressures in inducing party divergence.

Andr� Blais is Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in Electoral Studies at the Universit� de Montr�al.

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"This is a solid piece of comparative analysis. Rather than just supporting conventional wisdom, [the authors] find enough odd cases, nuances, and surprises to fully justify their analysis as something new and very interesting. Its combination of accessibility and solid social science should make this book useful to both advanced undergraduates, the informed public, and the social science community." David Loweny, University of North Carolina