How robust is coordinated decentralization in socio-economic governance, especially in wage bargaining, when national economies are torn between internationalization on the one hand and decentralization or increased internal diversity on the other? How should the national state influence the behaviour of trade unions and employers’ organizations? What constitutes an effective public policy towards industrial relations? Are there any general design principles for such policies? These are the questions that we seek to answer in this article, mainly using the Dutch consultation economy as our example.