Labor Unions Partisan Coalitions And Market Reforms In Latin America

Due to economic crises, labor parties followed economic policies that hurt labor unions during the 1990s, such as trade liberalization and privatization. This book explains why labor unions resisted on some occasions, and submitted on others, and the consequences of their actions by studying three countries: Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela.

Shows that electoral competition and partisan government helped balance the conflicting demands of voters' interests with the financial pressures generated by capital scarcity.

Why labor unions resisted and submitted during the economic crises of the 1990s.

Rather than an unintended by-product of poor state capacity, weak political and legal institutions are often weak by design.

Explores how non-policy resources, including administrative competence, patronage, and activists' networks, shape both electoral results and which voters get what.

Market, State and Society demonstrates the crucial role of differing configurations of domestic actors, interests and institutions in mediating the effects of globalization on welfare regimes, labor politics, and popular contestation. A variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives shed light on the recent transformations in relations among market, state, and society in Latin American countries Results are based on thorough empirical research Challenges simplistic arguments concerning state decline and describes the more complex nature of the situation

Neoliberalism is often studied as a political ideology, a government program, and even as a pattern of cultural identities. However, less attention is paid to the specific institutional resources employed by neoliberal administrations, which have resulted in the configuration of a neoliberal state model. This accessible volume compiles original essays on the neoliberal era in Latin America and Spain, exploring subjects such as neoliberal public policies, power strategies, institutional resources, popular support, and social protest. The book focuses on neoliberalism as a state model: a configuration of public power designed to implement radical policy proposals. This is the third volume in the State and Nation Making in Latin America and Spain series, which aims to complete and advance research and knowledge about national states in Latin America and Spain.