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Story summary
- Populism in Europe disintermediates unions, relegating their political influence and collective bargaining to a secondary role across Austria, France, Italy, Poland, and Spain.
- Formal institutions persist, but their influence diminishes as leaders push direct leader-people relations that bypass mediation.
- Three mechanisms drive the change: delegitimisation of unions, political bypass of negotiations, and procedural marginalisation of institutions.
- Dismantling is rare, but gradual weakening threatens economic democracy and workers' organized power.
