The decline and fall of corporatism? Labour legislation reform in Mexico and Argentina during the 1990s

Canadian Journal of Political Science

Volumn 34, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 249-274

  Patroni, Viviana ^a  

^a YORK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0035602047     PISSN: 00084239     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s000842390177789x     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. 1 The article was written while I was a professor in the Department of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University. I gratefully acknowledge financial support for part of this research that was received from a grant partly funded by WLU Operating Funds, and partly by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council General Research Grant awarded to WLU. In addition, I would also like to thank the International Development Research Centre and SSHRC for a grant that has permitted continued research on the topic.
2. Stephan Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman, The Politics of Economic Adjustment (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992); and Mario Navarro, "Democracia y reformas estructurales: explicaciones de la tolerancia popular al ajuste económico," Desarollo Económico 35 (1995), 443-66.
3. Stephan Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman, The Politics of Economic Adjustment (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992); and Mario Navarro, "Democracia y reformas estructurales: explicaciones de la tolerancia popular al ajuste económico," Desarollo Económico 35 (1995), 443-66.
4. See, for instance, Guillermo O'Donnell, "Delegative Democracy," Journal of Democracy 1 (1994), 55-69.
5. P. C. Schmitter, "Still the Century of Corporatism?" in F. B. Pike and T. Stritch, eds., The New Corporatism: Social-Political Structures in the Iberian World (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1974), 93-94; parenthesis in original.
6. Ibid., 104.
7. David Collier and Ruth Berins Collier, "Who Does What, to Whom, and How: Toward a Comparative Analysis of Latin America Corporatism," in James Malloy, ed., Authoritarianism and Corporatism in Latin America (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), 493.
8. David Collier, "Trajectory of a Concept: 'Corporatism' in the Study of Latin American Politics," in Peter Smith, ed., Latin America in Comparative Perspective: New Approaches to Methods and Analysis (Boulder: Westview, 1996), 142.
9. Philippe C. Schmitter, "Reflections on Where the Theory of Neo-Corporatism has Gone and Where the Praxis of Neo-Corporatism May Be Going," in Gerhard Lehmbruch and Philippe C. Schmitter, eds., Patterns of Corporatist Policy-Making (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1982), 262-63.
10. Regarding some of the problems in the use of corporatism as an analytical category, see Kevin Middlebrook, The Paradox of Revolution. Labour, the State and Authoritarianism in Mexico (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 341-42, note 82.
11. Collier, "The Trajectory of a Concept," 138.
12. Schmitter, "Reflections on Where the Theory of Neo-Corporatism," 265-66.
13. See Alfred Stepan, The State and Society: Peru in Comparative Perspective (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), 73-78; and Guillermo O'Donnell "Corporatism and the Question of the State," in Malloy, ed., Authoritarianism and Corporatism in Latin America, note 40.
14. See Alfred Stepan, The State and Society: Peru in Comparative Perspective (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), 73-78; and Guillermo O'Donnell "Corporatism and the Question of the State," in Malloy, ed., Authoritarianism and Corporatism in Latin America, note 40.
15. On the issue of corporatism as a system of political domination, see Enrique de la Garza Toledo, Restructuración productiva y respuesta sindical en México (Mexico: UNAM, 1993), 14.
16. By "official labour movement" I will refer more precisely to those labour organizations - confederations, federations and unions - that formed the workers' sector within the party. Since 1966, they are organized within the Labour Congress (CT).
17. This bargain reached its most extreme manifestation during the process of neoliberal restructuring, to the point of undermining labour leadership's claims to representation and thus facilitating their own fragmentation. See Philip Oxhorn, "Is the Century of Corporatism Over? Neoliberalism and the Rise of Neopluralism," in Philip D. Oxhorn and Graciela Ducatenzeiler, eds., What Kind of Democracy? What Kind of Market? (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), 195-217.
18. It must be noted, though, that corporatism in Mexico acquired the conservative characteristics associated with it today only by the end of the 1940s.
19. Middlebrook, The Paradox of Revolution, 96.
20. Viviana Patroni, "The Politics of Labour Legislation Reform in Mexico," Capital and Class 65 (1998), 107-32.
21. Ruth Berins Collier and David Collier, Shaping the Political Arena. Critical Junctures, the Labour Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 232, 242-45.
22. M. Victoria Murillo, "Los sindicatos frente a la reforma del Estado en Argentina y Mexico," Sociedad 8 (1996), 150.
23. Louise Doyon, "El crecimiento sindical bajo el peronismo" in Juan Carlos Torre, ed., La formación del sindicalismo peronista (Buenos Aires: Legasa, 1988), 177-78.
24. Juan Carlos Torre, La vieja guardia sindical y Perón. Sobre los orígenes del peronismo (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1990), 250.
25. Measures of the average real legal minimum wage in Mexico City show that with 1978 as the base year (100), wages in 1940-1941 were 46.8, fell to 28.2 in 1950-1951, started a slow recovery, since then but only surpassed the 1940-1941 level in 1962-63 when they reached 52.6. From then wages exhibit a clear upward tendency, accelerating during the 1970s. See Peter Gregory, The Myth of Market Failure. Employment and the Labour Market in Mexico (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), 220.
26. Nora Lustig, "La desigual distribución del ingreso y de la riqueza," in Rolando Cordera and Carlos Tello, eds., La desigualdad en Mexico (Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno, 1984), 282.
27. Héctor G. Cordone, "El sindicalismo bajo la hegemonía peronista: emergencia, consolidación y evolución histórica," in Omar Moreno, ed., Desafios para el sindicalismo en la Argentina (Buenos Aires: Fundación Friedrich Ebert, 1993), 56.
28. Marcelo Cavarozzi, Sindicatos y político en Argentina (Buenos Aires: CEDES, 1984), 72-73.
29. Ricardo Gaudio and Andrés Thompson, Sindicalismo peronista/gobierno radical. Los an̈os de Alfonsín (Buenos Aires: Fundación Friedrich Ebert, 1990).
30. Omar Moreno, "La última oportunidad del sindicalismo argentino," in Holm-Detlv Köhler and Manfred Wannöffel, eds., Modelo Neoliberal y Sindicatos en América Latina (México: Fundación Friedrich Ebert, 1993), 53-56.
31. For an insightful comment on the nature of union struggles during this critical period see Daniel James, Resistance and Integration. Peronism and the Argentine Working Class, 1946-1976 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
32. Hector E. Schamis, "Reconceptualizing Latin American Authoritarianism in the 1970s. From Bureaucratic-Authoritarianism to Neoconservatism," Comparative Politics 23 (1991), 206.
33. Between 1955 and 1983, there were four military regimes in Argentina (1955-1958, 1962-1964, 1966-1973 and 1976-1983), and none of the civilian regimes succeeded in finishing its constitutional term in office (1958-1962, 1964-1966 and 1973-1976).
34. Yet, and regardless of the harsh authoritarian measures taken against labour and society in general, the option of restructuring the organizations of the working class was not abandoned. See Paul W. Drake, Labour Movements and Dictatorships. The Southern Cone in Comparative Perspective (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 162-64.
35. As noted before, real wages started to decline from the end of the 1970s. Minimum real wages fell by more than 60 per cent between 1980 and 1992, and they affected wages in all sectors. Although the decline was different in the various economic sectors (for instance industrial wages fell by 30 per cent for the same period), the downward trend affected most of the working population in Mexico. See Francisco Zapata, El sindicalismo mexicano frente a la restructuración (Mexico: El Colegio de Mexico, 1995), 80.
36. See Arturo Alcalde, "Contra el corporativismo, por la libertad sindical," in F. Mora and V. M. Reynoso, eds., Modernización y legislación laboral en el noroeste de México (Hermosillo, Mexico: Universidad de Sonora, 1990), 39-53.
37. Graciela Bensusán, "Los sindicatos mexicanos y la legalidad laboral," Revista Mexicana de Sociología 56 (1994), 58-60.
38. Luis Méndez and José Othón Quiroz, "Respuesta obrera: los sindicatos frente a la restructuración productiva (1983-1992)," El Cotidiano 50 (1992), 167-68.
39. Graciela Bensusán and Carlos García, Opiniones sindicales sobre la reforma laboral (Mexico: Fundación Friedrich Ebert, 1993), 16-17.
40. Luis Méndez and José Othón Quiroz, "Productividad, respuesta obrera y sucesión presidencial," El Cotidiano 58 (1993), 75-77.
41. Arturo Alcalde "La propuesta laboral del PND," La Jornada (Mexico), June 25, 1995.
42. Graciela Bensusán, "Entre la tradición y el cambio: el corporativismo sindical en México," in Maria Silvia Portella de Castro y Achim Wachendorfer, eds., Sindicalismo Latinoamericano: entre la renovación y la resignación (Caracas: Nueva Sociedad, 1995), 77.
43. Paul G. Buchanan, State, Labour, Capital: Democratizing Class Relations in the Southern Cone (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995), 136-37; and Andrés Thompson, "De la primavera populista al invierno conservador: El sindicalismo peronista entre 1973 y 1989," in Moreno, ed., Desafios para el sindicalismo en la Argentina, 87.
44. Paul G. Buchanan, State, Labour, Capital: Democratizing Class Relations in the Southern Cone (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995), 136-37; and Andrés Thompson, "De la primavera populista al invierno conservador: El sindicalismo peronista entre 1973 y 1989," in Moreno, ed., Desafios para el sindicalismo en la Argentina, 87.
45. Julio Godio, El Movimiento Obrero Argentino (1955-1990): De la resistencia a la encrucijada menemista (Buenos Aires: Legasa, 1991), 392-93.
46. Thompson, "De la primavera populista," 87-88.
47. Julio Godio and Héctor Palomino, "El movimiento sindical argentino hoy: historia, organización y nuevo desafíos programáticos," in Julio Godio, Héctor Palomino and Achim Wachendorfer, eds., El movimiento sindical argentino (1880-1987) (Buenos Aires: Puntosur, 1988), 94.
48. Vicente Palermo and Marcos Novaro, Política y poder en el gobierno de Menem (Buenos Aires: Norma, 1996), 193-94.
49. See Sebastián Etchemendy, "¿Límites al decisionismo?" (Mimeo, Instituto Gino Germani, Facultad the Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1994).
50. When economic activity accelerated between 1991 and mid-1994, unemployment grew from 6.5 per cent to 12 per cent. In 1995, already into a recession, unemployment reached 18.6 per cent. See Mario Damilla, José Maria Fanelli and Roberto Frenkel, "De México a México: el desempeno de América Latina en los noventa," Desarollo Económico 36 (1996), 51-85. The growth of unemployment and the slow generation of employment, even during periods of economic growth, are closely connected to the exchange regime imposed in Argentina from 1992.
51. Clarín (Buenos Aires), April 28, 1998.
52. Página 12 (Buenos Aires), September 3, 1998.
53. Edward L. Gibson, "The Populist Road to Market Reform: Policy and Electoral Coalitions in Mexico and Argentina," World Politics 49 (1997), 339-70.