Labor and industrial relations is the field of study concerning the relationship between workers, their employers, labor unions, and different forms of government regulation. Working on numerous economic theories, labor, and industrial relations explores benefits and detriments to various forms of capitalism, Marxism, unitary perspectives, and plurality perspectives. More theoretical than practical, this field of study typically waxes and wanes about philosophical debates completely irrelevant to modern economies, however, but perhaps had some influence when labor unions, collective bargaining, and other collective worker groups functioned in specific locale or nation.