The article tries to answer an old question of economic theory and institutional economics: How do trade unions fit into a market economy? Are they a constitutive element of the market order or: are they a source of irritation and disruption?

Individualisation and precarisation as two broad trends in contemporary industrialised societies are related to one another and to certain developments in the German trade union landscape. With a focus on a reunified Germany from the nineties onwards, in this paper the impact of...