ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how institutions, in the form of collectively enforced formal rules, empower workers to influence the prerogatives of employers and the state. It takes stock of current knowledge on ‘institutional power resources’ and aims to provide analytical precision to the concept. First, it provides a relevant definition of institutions and conceptualises the ways that they impact worker power. It addresses the role of institutions as power resources and how they empower workers in episodic struggles, enforcing constraints, influencing unions’ strategic choices, and in upscaling worker power through complementarity effects. Second, it identifies different institutional power resources and their relevance to outcomes in the workplace, labour markets, and the political arena. Third, the origins of institutional power and evidence on how this power has changed in advanced political economies is examined. Fourth, and finally, the chapter concludes with an assessment of our current theoretical understanding of this vital power resource and suggests avenues for further theorising.
