Industrial relations, regulation and the collective agreement: Advancing the neorealist project

In this article, three perspectives that have emerged from neorealist studies in industrial relations are explored. An initial analytical contribution of this article is to hierarchize the various categories of rules, particularly by distinguishing procedural rules from content rules and labour relations rules from human resource management rules. Secondly, through the concept of the ''system of rules'', the article examines the ''national'' character of rules located in a single ''economic space'' and examines the interaction of these rules with this space. A third contribution is to identify strategies pursued by collective actors, the interaction of which has become move and more central to the understanding of the dynamics of the system for those working within the neorealist tradition. In pursuing these three themes, the article draws upon the tools of several heterodox institutionalist theories developed in France, notably, the ''Regulation Approach'' and the ''Economics of Conventions'' school.