Continuity despite change : the politics of labor regulation in Latin America / Matthew E. Carnes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carnes, Matthew E., 1970- author.

Series:

Social science history.

Social Science History

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor laws and legislation--Latin America.

Labor laws and legislation.

Labor policy--Latin America.

Labor policy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 238 pages) : illustrations (black and white).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

As the dust settles on nearly three decades of economic reform in Latin America, one of the most fundamental economic policy areas has changed far less than expected: labor regulation. To date, Latin America's labor laws remain both rigidly protective and remarkably diverse. Continuity Despite Change develops a new theoretical framework for understanding labor laws and their change through time, beginning by conceptualizing labor laws as comprehensive systems or "regimes." In this context, Matthew Carnes demonstrates that the reform measures introduced in the 1980's and 1990's have only marginally modified the labor laws from decades earlier. To explain this continuity, he argues that labor law development is constrained by long-term economic conditions and labor market institutions. He points specifically to two key factors—the distribution of worker skill levels and the organizational capacity of workers. Carnes presents cross-national statistical evidence from the eighteen major Latin American economies to show that the theory holds for the decades from the 1980's to the 2000's, a period in which many countries grappled with proposed changes to their labor laws. He then offers theoretically grounded narratives to explain the different labor law configurations and reform paths of Chile, Peru, and Argentina. His findings push for a rethinking of the impact of globalization on labor regulation, as economic and political institutions governing labor have proven to be more resilient than earlier studies have suggested.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Tables and Figures

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction: Continuity Despite Change

Chapter 1. Explaining Enduring Labor Codes in Developing Countries: Skill Distributions and the Organizational Capacity of Labor

Chapter 2. Using Multiple Methods to Understand Labor Law Development in Latin America

Chapter 3. Latin American Labor Laws in Comparative Perspective

Chapter 4. Fragmented Individualism: Professional Labor Regulation in Chile

Chapter 5. Contradictions, Divisions, and Competition: Encompassing Labor Regulation in Peru

Chapter 6. Integration and Incorporation: Corporatist Labor Regulation in Argentina

Conclusion: Politics and Labor Regulation in Latin America

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780804792424

0804792429

OCLC:

923709076