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Labour Market Regimes Under Threat? Sources of Continuity in Germany, Britain, and Sweden

Stewart Wood

in The New Politics of the Welfare State

In this third of three chapters on the distinctive policy dynamics of particular areas of social provision, Wood looks at labour market regimes in Germany, Britain, and Sweden. The theoretical ... More

In this third of three chapters on the distinctive policy dynamics of particular areas of social provision, Wood looks at labour market regimes in Germany, Britain, and Sweden. The theoretical starting point of the chapter is an examination of path dependence, perhaps the most popular contemporary approach to explaining the persistence of institutions and policies over time. In principle, this offers an enticing explanation of the resilience of national policy trajectories, although the outcomes it explains have a tendency to be overdetermined, and not all mechanisms generating a bias towards the status quo are path‐dependent ones. The theoretical work of this chapter, therefore, lies in deriving alternative (though not mutually exclusive) micro‐level sources of policy continuity over time, and evaluating their relative contributions to the evolution of labour market policy in Germany, Britain, and Sweden. Divided into four substantive sections: Section 1 discusses the theory of path‐dependent institutional and policy trajectories in politics; Sect. 2 presents three distinct sources of policy continuity (employer‐centred, constitutional, and electoral) that are often bundled together as ‘lock‐in mechanisms’ in path‐dependent accounts; Sect. 3 sketches the changing context of labour market policy in Western Europe by looking at national responses to unemployment from 1980 onwards in each of the three country case studies, and providing accounts of labour market policies, employers’ preferences in relation to labour market policies, and constitutional factors and electoral constraints in relation to labour market reform; Sect. 4 is a conclusion and discusses the thesis offered by the chapter — that the trajectory of labour market policy can be accounted for by an employer‐centred theory of preferences.Less

North Korean Revolution in Repetition: Crisis and Value

Hyun Ok Park

in The Capitalist Unconscious: From Korean Unification to Transnational Korea

Chapter 7 investigates North Korean state’s own crisis-ridden construction of socialism from the 1950s to the present.

Durable Subordination: Chinese Labour Regime through a South Korean Lens

Ching Kwan Lee

in East Asian Capitalism: Diversity, Continuity, and Change

Crucial institutional changes have taken place in the Chinese labour market regime over the past three decades, primarily in the processes of commodification and informalization. The global ... More

Crucial institutional changes have taken place in the Chinese labour market regime over the past three decades, primarily in the processes of commodification and informalization. The global ideological crusade against unionized labour, the development imperatives of the Chinese government, and the marketizing forces unleashed by sustained economic reforms have combined to reshape industrial relations in China. While market and systemic factors are causally important, their impact has been mediated through the dominant developmental coalition that has centred round CCP elites and corporate capitalists, both state and private. This coalitional structure has also underpinned the continuation of the hukou system and a weak civil society that has in turn kept labour poorly organized and politically impotent — with important consequences for both China’s economy and that of the world. The impact of coalitional dynamics is revealed even more forcefully in the brief yet illuminating comparison of the cross-country variation in the organization and power of labour forces in China and South Korea.Less

Labor-Market Regimes in U.S. Economic History

Joshua L. Rosenbloom and William A. Sundstrom

in Economic Evolution and Revolution in Historical Time

This chapter discusses the impact of labor-market regimes in the economic history of the United States. It discusses the contrast between the labor systems of the antebellum northern and southern ... More

This chapter discusses the impact of labor-market regimes in the economic history of the United States. It discusses the contrast between the labor systems of the antebellum northern and southern economies, and moves on to the shifts in labor-market regimes shaped by the Civil War, the world wars, and the Great Depression. These regime shifts shaped labor-market outcomes, such as wages, working conditions, and employment, as well as the dynamics of technology and human capital accumulation.Less

Latin American Labor Laws inComparative Perspective

Matthew E. Carnes

in Continuity Despite Change: The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America

This chapter employs an original cross-national dataset of individual and collective labor regulations to chart the range of variation in labor laws within Latin America during the 1980-2005 period. ... More

This chapter employs an original cross-national dataset of individual and collective labor regulations to chart the range of variation in labor laws within Latin America during the 1980-2005 period. Econometric analysis finds that skill levels and organizational capacity are consistently correlated with differences in labor regulation “regimes” in recent decades. In addition, the chapter tests alternative hypotheses present in the literature, finding that government partisanship has important effects both through its historical legacies and through the reforms proposed by sitting governments.Less

Solving Industry Crises: Pollos Y Polleros

Kathleen C. Schwartzman

in The Chicken Trail: Following Workers, Migrants, and Corporations across the Americas

This chapter examines the labor and profit crises that hounded the poultry industry in the mid-1990s. It begins with an overview of the framework used to conceptualize and analyze the ... More

This chapter examines the labor and profit crises that hounded the poultry industry in the mid-1990s. It begins with an overview of the framework used to conceptualize and analyze the labor-management regime before discussing changes in that regime using published reports and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) data. It then considers the profit crisis that concerned industry leaders and goes on to evaluate possible solutions, arguing that both the labor and profit crises were resolved by immigrant hiring. It shows how the hiring of illegal immigrants, or ethnic displacement, lowered labor and substituted a docile labor force, thus addressing the labor conflict without compromising the surplus value extracted from the production process.Less

An Opulence of Virtue

Andrea Muehlebach

in The Moral Neoliberal: Welfare and Citizenship in Italy

This chapter introduces the concept of neoliberal moral authoritarianism, though of a very particular kind, which comes in the form of a highly moralized kind of citizenship that has emerged in the ... More

This chapter introduces the concept of neoliberal moral authoritarianism, though of a very particular kind, which comes in the form of a highly moralized kind of citizenship that has emerged in the northern Italian region of Lombardy. The Italian state has in the last three decades sought to mobilize parts of the population into a new voluntary labor regime—one which has allowed the state to conflate voluntary labor with good citizenship, and unwaged work with gifting. Many of those invested in the creation of this voluntary labor regime think of it as a sphere located outside of the realm of market exchange. This book aims to treat markets and morals as indissolubly linked and to propose that the contemporary neoliberal order works to produce more than rational, utilitarian, instrumentalist subjects. On the other hand, it shows that some forms of neoliberalization may simultaneously posit an affective, that is to say a compassionate and empathetic, self as the corollary center of their social and moral universe. Such attention to the moral neoliberal portrays neoliberalism as a form that contains practices and forces that appear as oppositional and yet get folded into a single order.Less

The Labor of Capitalism: Industrial Revolution and the Transformation of the Global Cotton-Growing Countryside

Sven Beckert

in Workers in Hard Times: A Long View of Economic Crises

This chapter begins by discussing the concept transnational labor history and the challenge it poses to labor historians. It then examines the worldwide crisis of cotton production touched off by the ... More

This chapter begins by discussing the concept transnational labor history and the challenge it poses to labor historians. It then examines the worldwide crisis of cotton production touched off by the American Civil War, emancipation, and the subsequent frantic search for alternatives, including coolie and sharecropping labor systems. It shows that despite the variety of labor regimes, cotton cultivators everywhere faced essentially similar challenges of labor in the global age: market fluctuations, state coercion, inescapable debt and contract regimes, and political marginalization. These were the people who would grow ever-larger amounts of cotton, from India to Central Asia, from Egypt to the United States, and the new labor regimes in which they found themselves symbolized one of the most significant changes of the nineteenth century.Less

The Rise of Gangsterism and Charrismo: Labor Violence and the Postrevolutionary Mexican State

Marcos Aguila and Jeffrey Bortz

in Violence, Coercion, and State-Making in Twentieth-Century Mexico: The Other Half of the Centaur

This chapter focuses on labor violence in Mexico and examines some fundamental continuities and changes in the state between 1920 and 1960. In particular, it looks at two important episodes: the ... More

This chapter focuses on labor violence in Mexico and examines some fundamental continuities and changes in the state between 1920 and 1960. In particular, it looks at two important episodes: the textile wars in the 1920s and the national railroad strikes in the 1940s and 1950s. These battles were linked to the workers' upheaval between 1910 and 1923 that overthrew the old labor regime. The CROM (Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana), backed by the state, resorted to illegal strikes, assaults, and murders of rival union members, who retaliated in the same manner. State elites applied measures, both legal and extralegal, to subdue restless unions and impose a co-opted leadership (charrismo). This chapter also explores political and agrarian violence that struck the textile industry in Puebla and how the state employed violence in order to impose its control over unions affiliated with railroads. Finally, it shows how labor law has provided opportunities but also new constraints for trade unions.Less

The Revolution and the Labor Regime, 1910–1923

in Revolution within the Revolution: Cotton Textile Workers and the Mexican Labor Regime, 1910–1923

This chapter demonstrates how workers won their revolution through an analysis of the changes in wages, hours, and benefits, and also control over hiring, firing, and discipline. It also analyzes the ... More

This chapter demonstrates how workers won their revolution through an analysis of the changes in wages, hours, and benefits, and also control over hiring, firing, and discipline. It also analyzes the limits to the workers' victory, rooted in its focus on law and trade unions, both of which required a strong state. A revolution born of a collapsing state ended up by creating a new one, with all its attendant ambiguities.Less

A Case of an Electronics Firm and the Involvement of the Church

Neethi P.

in Globalization Lived Locally: A Labour Geography Perspective

This chapter is a case study of a prominent electronics manufacturer in Kerala. It illuminates an approach to labour studies which focuses on ‘local labour control regimes’. This approach provides an ... More

This chapter is a case study of a prominent electronics manufacturer in Kerala. It illuminates an approach to labour studies which focuses on ‘local labour control regimes’. This approach provides an entry point to theorize the processes and operations of the localized system of power at various scales. This is followed by an examination of day-to-day resistance paths crafted by the workers. Building on the theoretical base of local labour control regimes, empirical evidence from the case study reveals that local labour markets develop their own forms of labour control and worker response patterns. These are not always clearly visible and may require something more than superficial enquiry to bring their salient features into view. In this case, the Church, an actor that has been for long a very influential player in the development experience in Kerala, is shown to play an unexpected role in local labour control regimes.Less

Labor Conflict in the Early Institutional Period, 1917–1923

in Revolution within the Revolution: Cotton Textile Workers and the Mexican Labor Regime, 1910–1923

This chapter describes the changes in the early institutional period after the passage of the 1917 Constitution. It analyzes the increase in labor violence, the changed trade unions of that period, ... More

This chapter describes the changes in the early institutional period after the passage of the 1917 Constitution. It analyzes the increase in labor violence, the changed trade unions of that period, and most important, the new power of workers and unions over the shop floor. The labor regime of 1917–23 had little in common with that of the Porfiriato.Less

Labour Conditions in Contemporary India

Praveen Jha

in Economics: Volume 3: Macroeconomics

Decent employment and livelihood options ought to be among the most important policy objectives on any meaningful agenda of economic development. India’s experience, on this count, has been quite ... More

Decent employment and livelihood options ought to be among the most important policy objectives on any meaningful agenda of economic development. India’s experience, on this count, has been quite unsatisfactory since Independence. Like many other developing countries, India has made inadequate progress in terms of addressing the problems of poverty, unemployment, and occupational structural transformation. As is well-known, even today vast masses of the country’s population continue to eke out an existence primarily through their dependence on agriculture and a variety of non-rural informal activities under extremely fragile conditions. Furthermore, since the early 1990s, during the era of neo-liberal reforms, the standard correlates of the well-being of the masses in general have come under further relative pressure. This chapter in an attempt to provide an overview of labour conditions in contemporary India while locating it in the trajectory of economic transformation since Independence.Less

Teachers and Tipping Points: Historical Origins of the Teacher Quality Crisis

Stacey M. Jones

in Economic Evolution and Revolution in Historical Time

This chapter, which examines the discontinuous shifts in female labor force participation during the late 1960s and early 1970s, focuses on shifts in women's career choices and argues that this ... More

This chapter, which examines the discontinuous shifts in female labor force participation during the late 1960s and early 1970s, focuses on shifts in women's career choices and argues that this transition was precipitated by the decline of employment opportunities in teaching. It brings together national educational statistics on teaching and the historical literature on women's push into the professions in the early 1970s, arguing that changing labor-market regimes in the teaching profession played an integral role in the opening of broader professional opportunities.Less

The Flourishing of Biracial Christianity, 1815–1831

Charles F. Irons

in The Origins of Proslavery Christianity: White and Black Evangelicals in Colonial and Antebellum Virginia

This chapter illustrates how politicians and evangelical clergymen pulled the country in different directions in the years between the War of 1812 and the Southampton Insurrection in 1831. ... More

This chapter illustrates how politicians and evangelical clergymen pulled the country in different directions in the years between the War of 1812 and the Southampton Insurrection in 1831. Representatives of slave and free-labor regimes competed in Congress for access to western lands and, in 1819, rehearsed the fatal debate over slavery's expansion when Missouri applied for statehood. There was no corresponding cataclysm in the nation's evangelical churches, however—no “fire bell in the night.” Northern and southern evangelicals actually cooperated more closely in this period, building rather than tearing down bridges between the sections. Southern white evangelicals, particularly in places such as Virginia, where they had agreed to disagree over slavery, did not suspect that conflict over slavery would disrupt their communion with their northern brethren.Less