1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910809230403321

Autore

Carnes Matthew E. <1970->

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, California : , : Stanford University Press, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

0-8047-9242-9

Descrizione fisica

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

Collana

Social Science History

Disciplina

344.801

Soggetti

Labor laws and legislation - Latin America

Labor policy - Latin America

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.