Varieties of capitalism, power resources, and historical legacies: Explaining the Slovenian exception

Politics and Society

Volumn 39, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 268-295

  Crowley, Stephen ^a   Stanojević, Miroslav ^b  

^a OBERLIN COLLEGE   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA   (Slovenia)

Author keywords

East central Europe; Labor; Postcommunism; Power resources; Varieties of capitalism

Indexed keywords

EID: 79955852031     PISSN: 00323292     EISSN: 15527514     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0032329211405440     Document Type: Article

References (169)

1. Bob Hancké, Martin Rhodes, and Mark Thatcher, eds., Beyond Varieties of Capitalism: Conflict, Contradiction, and Complementarities in the European Economy (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2007).
2. Torben Iversen and J. D. Stephens, "Partisan Politics, the Welfare State, and Three Worlds of Human Capital Formation, " Comparative Political Studies 41, no. 4 (May 2008): 600-637
3. Thomas R. Cusack, Torben Iversen, and David Soskice, "Economic Interests and the Origins of Electoral Systems, " American Political Science Review 101, no. 03 (2007): 373-91.
4. In this, our argument emphasizes the importance of "critical junctures. " Ruth Berins Collier and David Collier, Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991).
5. Peter A. Hall and David W. Soskice, eds., Varieties of Capitalism the Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001)
6. Bruno Amable, The Diversity of Modern Capitalism (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003)
7. Herbert Kitschelt, ed., Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism, Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
8. Chris Howell, "Varieties of Capitalism: And Then There Was One?" Comparative Politics 36, no. 1 (October 2003).
9. Hall and Soskice, Varieties of Capitalism
10. Magnus Feldmann, "Emerging Varieties of Capitalism in Transition Countries: Industrial Relations and Wage Bargaining in Estonia and Slovenia, " Comparative Political Studies 39, no. 7 (September 1, 2006): 829-54
11. Magnus Feldmann, "The Origins of Varieties of Capitalism: Lessons from Post-Socialist Transition in Estonia and Slovenia, " in Hancké, Rhodes, and Thatcher, Beyond Varieties of Capitalism
12. Clemens Buchen, "East European Antipodes: Varieties of Capitalism in Estonia and Slovenia, " in Varieties of Capitalism in Post-Communist Countries, ed. David Lane and M. R. Myant (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
13. Dorothee Bohle and Béla Greskovits, "Neoliberalism, Embedded Neoliberalism and Neocorporatism: Towards Transnational Capitalism in Central-Eastern Europe, " West European Politics 30, no. 3 (May 2007): 443-66.
14. The other spheres are corporate finance and inter-firm relations (Hall and Soskice, Varieties of Capitalism, 6-7). Buchen argues that in Slovenia inter-firm relations are close to the coordinated ideal type, and that Slovenia's form of insider privatization, which will be discussed further, effectively provides the same function as the "patient capital" of bank financing in longstanding CMEs.
15. Kathleen Thelen, "Varieties of Labor Politics in the Developed Democracies, " in Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001)
16. Howell, "Varieties of Capitalism"
17. Feldmann, "Emerging Varieties of Capitalism in Transition Countries. "
18. Óscar Molina and Martin Rhodes, "Conflict, Complementarities and Institutional Change in Mixed Market Economies, " in Hancké, Rhodes, and Thatcher, Beyond Varieties of Capitalism, 228.
19. See the discussion in Herbert Kitschelt, "Collective Group Interests and Distributive Outcomes: Competing Claims about the Evolution of the Welfare State, " Labor History 47, no. 3 (August 2006): 411-20.
20. Peter Swenson, Capitalists Against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002).
21. Torben Iversen, Capitalism, Democracy, and Welfare, Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
22. Dorothee Bohle and Bela Greskovits, "Varieties of Capitalism and Capitalism 'Tout Court,'" European Journal of Sociology 50, no. 3 (2009): 362-63.
23. Gøsta Esping-Andersen, Politics Against Markets: The Social Democratic Road to Power (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985)
24. Evelyne Huber and John D. Stephens, Development and Crisis of the Welfare State: Parties and policies in Global Markets (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001)
25. Walter Korpi, The Democratic Class Struggle (London: Routledge Kegan Paul, 1983)
26. Walter Korpi, "Power Resources and Employer-Centered Approaches in Explanations of Welfare States and Varieties of Capitalism, " World Politics 58, no. 2 (January 2006): 167-206.
27. Korpi, "Power Resources and Employer-Centered Approaches"
28. Colin Crouch, Industrial Relations and European State Traditions (Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1993).
29. Crouch, Industrial Relations and European State Traditions, 99.
30. Iversen and Stephens, "Partisan Politics"
31. Cusack, Iversen, and Soskice, "Economic Interests and the Origins of Electoral Systems. "
32. Feldmann, "Origins of Varieties of Capitalism. "
33. Lawrence King, "Central European Capitalism in Comparative Perspective, " in Hancké, Rhodes, and Thatcher, Beyond Varieties of Capitalism
34. Vlad Mykhnenko, "Strengths and Weaknesses of 'Weak' Coordination: Economic Institutions, Revealed Comparative Advantages, and Socio-Economic Performance of Mixed Market Economies in Poland and Ukraine, " in Hancké, Rhodes, and Thatcher, Beyond Varieties of Capitalism
35. Lane and Myant, Varieties of Capitalism in Post-Communist Countries.
36. Buchen, "East European Antipodes"
37. Feldmann, "Emerging Varieties of Capitalism in Transition Countries"
38. Feldmann, "Origins of Varieties of Capitalism. " Bohle and Greskovits prefer the term "neocorporatist" for Slovenia: "Neoliberalism, Embedded Neoliberalism and Neocorporatism"; "The State, Internationalization, and Capitalist Diversity in Eastern Europe, " Competition and Change 11, no. 2 (June 2007): 89-115.
39. Eurofound, "Industrial Relations Country Profiles, " European Industrial Relations Observatory Online, http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/country_index.htm.
40. Eurofound, "Industrial Relations Country Profiles, " European Industrial Relations Observatory Online, http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/country_index.htm.
41. Thorsten Schulten, "Changes in National Collective Bargaining Systems since 1990, " http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2005/03/study/tn0503102s.htm.
42. Jelle Visser, "Patterns and Variations in European Industrial Relations, " in Industrial Relations in Europe 2004 (Luxembourg: Office for the Official Publications of the European Communities).
43. Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead, EU Enlargement versus Social Europe? The Uncertain Future of the European Social Model (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2003), 259.
44. Eurofound, "Industrial Relations Country Profiles. "
45. King, "Central European Capitalism in Comparative Perspective"
46. Charles Woolfson, "Social Dialogue and Lifelong Learning in New EU Member States: 'Reform Fit' in Latvia, " Journal of European Social Policy 18, no. 1 (2008): 79-87.
47. Buchen, "East European Antipodes. "
48. B. Kavčič, "Analiza izvajanja zakona o soupravljanju delavcev" [Analysis of the law on participation implementation] (mimeo, ITEO, Ljubljana, 1996).
49. Vaughan-Whitehead, EU Enlargement versus Social Europe?, 286-93.
50. Franc Kavčič, ed., Ekonomsko-socialni svet 1994-2004 (Ljubljana: ESS, 2004)
51. Bohle and Greskovits, "Neoliberalism, Embedded Neoliberalism and Neocorporatism. "
52. Marino Regini, "Between Deregulation and Social Pacts: The Responses of European Economies to Globalization, " Politics & Society 28 (March 2000): 5-33
53. Bob Hancke and Martin Rhodes, "EMU and Labor Market Institutions in Europe: The Rise and Fall of National Social Pacts, " Work and Occupations 32, no. 2 (May 1, 2005): 196-228.
54. Kenneth H. F. Dyson, ed., Enlarging the Euro Area: External Empowerment and Domestic Transformation in East Central Europe (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006).
55. Dogovor o politiki plač v gospodarstvu za leto 1994 [Agreement on incomes policy in the private sector for 1994] (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, no. 23), 1436-37
56. Socialni sporazum za 1995 [Social Agreement for 1995] (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, no. 22), 1692-95
57. Socialni sporazum za 1996 [Social Agreement for 1996] (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, no. 29), 2439-43
58. Socialni sporazum za obdobje 2003-2005; [Social Agreement for the Period 2003-2005] (Ljubljana: Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs)
59. Socialni sporazum za obdobje 2007-2009. [Social Agreement for the Period 2007-2009] (Ljubljana, 2007).
60. Iversen, Capitalism, Democracy, and Welfare.
61. Eurostat, Total expenditure on social protection, current prices (% of GDP), 2006. http:// epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/.
62. Tomasz Inglot, Welfare States in East Central Europe, 1919-2004 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008)
63. Stephan Haggard and Robert Kaufman, Development, Democracy, and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008)
64. Linda J. Cook, Postcommunist Welfare States: Reform Politics in Russia and Eastern Europe (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007)
65. Bohle and Greskovits, "The State, Internationalization, and Capitalist Diversity in Eastern Europe. "
66. Mitchell A. Orenstein, Privatizing Pensions: The Transnational Campaign for Social Security Reform (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008).
67. In particular unions mobilized on March 28, 1998, against the proposed pension reform, producing what was then Slovenia's largest union rally. P. Vrhovec, 20 let Zveze svobodnih sindikatov Slovenije (Ljubljana: ZSSS, 2010), 49-57
68. Kavčič, Ekonomsko-socialni svet, 58
69. T. Stanovnik, "The Political Economy of Pension Reform in Slovenia, " in Pension Reform in Central and Eastern Europe, vol. 2 (Budapest: International Labour Office, n.d.), 19-73
70. Sabina Avdagic, "Tripartism and Economic Reforms in Slovenia and Poland, " in Blunting Neoliberalism: Tripartism and Economic Reforms in the Developing World, ed. Lydia Fraile (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 48-49.
71. Feldmann, "Origins of Varieties of Capitalism"
72. Feldmann, "Emerging Varieties of Capitalism in Transition Countries. "
73. Susan L. Woodward, Socialist Unemployment: The Political Economy of Yugoslavia, 1945-1990 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995).
74. J. Pirjevec, Jugoslavija, Nastanek, razvoj ter razpad Karadjordjevićeve in Titove Jugoslavije (Koper: Založba Lipa, 1995)
75. J. Prunk, Kratka zgodovina Slovenije (Ljubljana: Založba Grad, 1998)
76. M. R. Rizman, Uncertain Path: Democratic Transition and Consolidation in Slovenia (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2006).
77. Mojmir Mrak, Matija Rojec, and Carlos Silva-Jauregui, "Overview: Slovenia's Threefold Transition, " in Slovenia, from Yugoslavia to the European Union, ed. Mrak, Rojec, and Silva-Jauregui (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004), xxv.
78. Vaughan-Whitehead, EU Enlargement versus Social Europe?, 128-29
79. Feldmann, "Emerging Varieties of Capitalism in Transition Countries"
80. Bohle and Greskovits, "The State, Internationalization, and Capitalist Diversity in Eastern Europe. "
81. Feldmann, "Origins of Varieties of Capitalism, " 343-44. In fact, the former Communist Party, which had the closest ties with enterprise managers, while influential, was not the "ruling party" but in the opposition until after the privatization law was passed.
82. Feldmann, "Origins of Varieties of Capitalism, " 346.
83. Wolfgang Streeck, "Competitive Solidarity: Rethinking the 'European Social Model'" (MPIfG Working Paper, Max Planck Institute, Cologne, September 1999).
84. See Hancké, Rhodes, and Thatcher on the importance of cross-class coalitions for coordinated economies. Bob Hancké, Martin Rhodes, and Mark Thatcher, "Introduction: Beyond Varieties of Capitalism, " in Hancké, Rhodes, and Thatcher, Beyond Varieties of Capitalism.
85. M. Jaklič, H. Zagoršek, and A. Hribernik, "Slovenian Evolutionary Business System Dynamics, " in New Modes of Globalizing: Experimentalist Forms of Economic Organization and Enabling Welfare Institutions: Lessons from the Nordic Countries and Slovenia, ed. P. H. Kristensen and K. Lilja (Helsinki: Helsinki School of Economics, 2009), 247.
86. Marko Grdešić, "Mapping the Paths of the Yugoslav Model: Labour Strength and Weakness in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, " European Journal of Industrial Relations 14, no. 2 (June 1, 2008): 133-51.
87. Miroslav Stanojević, "Formation of the Slovenian Pattern: The Strike Wave and Industrial Relations 'Rigidities,'" South-East Europe Review 6, no. 3 (2003): 17-30.
88. A. Lukan, Problemi institucionalizacije in regulacije stavk (Ljubljana: Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za družbene vede, 1992)
89. N. Jovanov, Sukobi: Protagonisti latentnih i otvorenih društvenih konflikata (Nikšić, Montenegro: Univerzitetska riječ, 1989).
90. See also Jake Lowinger, "Economic Reform and 'Double Movement' in Yugoslavia: an Analysis of Labor Unrest and Ethno-Nationalism in the 1980s" (PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 2009).
91. Stanojević, "Formation of the Slovenian Pattern. "
92. Tibor Meszmann, "(New) Labor Organizations for New Times? Transformation of Trade Unions in Serbia, Slovenia and Poland in 1988-1992/3" (unpublished manuscript, November 2007).
93. Tibor Meszmann, "(New) Labor Organizations for New Times? Transformation of Trade Unions in Serbia, Slovenia and Poland in 1988-1992/3" (unpublished manuscript, November 2007), 13.
94. M. Stanojević and P. Vrhovec, "Industrial Conflict in Slovenia, " South-East Europe Review for Labour and Social Affairs 4, no. 1 (2001): 29-37.
95. Stanojević, "Formation of the Slovenian Pattern, " 28.
96. The figures come from Stanojević, "Formation of the Slovenian Pattern, " 28.
97. While the inflation of the figures can't be discounted, Eurofound, "Industrial Relations Country Profiles, " Eurofound, "Strike Legislation and Trends Examined, " http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2002/11/feature/si0211101f. htm notes the possibility of undercounting, since strikes by other unions are not included.
98. Laborsta Internet, http://laborsta.ilo.org/. Data are missing from some countries for some years. The eastern European exception is in 1999, which saw a spike of strikes in Romania.
99. See also Stephen Crowley, "Explaining Labor Weakness in Post-Communist Europe: Historical Legacies and Comparative Perspective, " East European Politics and Societies 18, no. 3 (August 1, 2004): 394-429
100. Pieter Vanhuysse, Divide and Pacify: Strategic Social Policies and Political Protests in Post-Communist Democracies (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2006).
101. Laborsta Internet, http://laborsta.ilo.org/.
102. Guglielmo Meardi, Trade Union Activists, East and West: Comparisons in Multinational Companies (Aldershot, UK: Gower, 2000).
103. Vrhovec, 20 let Zveze svobodnih sindikatov Slovenije. (Ljubljana: ZSSS, 2010), 23-24.
104. Meszmann, "(New) Labor Organizations, " 13
105. D. Fink-Hafner, and A. Krašovec, "Ideološko-politički rascjepi u Slovenskoj stranačkoj areni poslije 1989 godine, " in Razvoj političkog pluralizma u Slovenijii i Bosni i Hercegovini, ed. Danica Fink-Hafner and Mirko Pejanović (Sarajevo, Ljubljana: Promocult, 2006), 71-104.
106. Stanojević, "Formation of the Slovenian Pattern. "
107. Feldmann, "Origins of Varieties of Capitalism. "
108. Vrhovec, 20 let Zveze svobodnih sindikatov Slovenije. (Ljubljana: ZSSS, 2010), 24-26.
109. Miroslav Stanojević, "The Rise and Decline of Slovenian Corporatism: Local and European Factors" (draft manuscript).
110. As a result, as late as 1999, firms with a share of insider ownership above 50 percent accounted for 22.9 percent of total capital, but 61.3 percent of total number of companies, suggesting that insider ownership clearly prevailed in labor-intensive companies (Marko Simoneti, Matija Rojec and Aleksandra Gregorič, 2004, 232).
111. Stanojević, "Rise and Decline"
112. Stanojević, "Formation of the Slovenian Pattern, " 28.
113. Meszmann, "(New) Labor Organizations. "
114. The next year, 1993, the law establishing worker codetermination was passed, further institutionalizing labor's position within the firm. Stanojević, "Formation of the Slovenian Pattern, " 28.
115. Woodward, Socialist Unemployment
116. Avdagic, "Tripartism and Economic Reforms in Slovenia and Poland. "
117. Avdagic, "Tripartism and Economic Reforms in Slovenia and Poland, " 43.
118. I. Lukšič, "Social Partnership in Slovenia-How to Go Further?" in Conflicts and Consensus: Pluralism and Neocorporatism in the New and Old Democracies, ed. Samo Kropivnik, Igor Lukšič, and Drago Zajc (Ljubljana: Slovenian Political Science Association, 1996), 185-207.
119. Korpi, "Power Resources and Employer-Centered Approaches. "
120. During Romania's peak of strikes in 1999 more than half of the striking workers were from the education sector. While Hungary also witnessed high strike rates in three years (1995, 1999, 2000) the Hungarian strikes were mainly limited to the transport sector (and education in 1995). Crucially, we argue, the strikes in Hungary and Romania came well after most institutional decisions in those countries had been reached.
121. Avdagic, "Tripartism and Economic Reforms in Slovenia and Poland. "
122. Laborsta Internet, http://laborsta.ilo.org/
123. Grzegorz Ekiert and Jan Kubik, Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, 1989-1993 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999), 108.
124. Graeme B. Robertson, "Leading Labor: Unions, Politics, and Protest in New Democracies, " Comparative Politics 36, no. 3 (April 2004): 253-72
125. Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way, "Between a Shock and a Hard Place: The Dynamics of Labor-Backed Adjustment in Poland and Argentina, " Comparative Politics 30, no. 2 (January 1998): 171-92.
126. Agnieszka Paczynska, "Confronting Change: Labor, State, and Privatization, " Review of International Political Economy 14 (May 2007): 345-46.
127. David Ost, The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005)
128. Avdagic, "Tripartism and Economic Reforms in Slovenia and Poland. "
129. Ost, Defeat of Solidarity
130. Meardi, Trade Union Activists.
131. Meardi, Trade Union Activists.
132. Ost, Defeat of Solidarity.
133. According to government figures, the number of strikes rose from 205 in 1990 to 305 in 1991 to 6,351 in 1992. Ekiert and Kubik, Rebellious Civil Society, 118.
134. Stanojević, "Formation of the Slovenian Pattern, " 18.
135. Leszek Balcerowicz, Socialism, Capitalism, Transformation (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1995).
136. Ekiert and Kubik, Rebellious Civil Society
137. Osa, "Contention and Democracy: Labor Protest in Poland, 1989-1993, " Communist and Post-Communist Studies 31, no. 1 (March 1998)
138. see also Vanhuysse, Divide and Pacify.
139. Though compare Paczynska, "Confronting Change" to Ost, Defeat of Solidarity.
140. Ekiert and Kubik, Rebellious Civil Society, 138.
141. Would Poland have developed a more coordinated economy if it had a dominant exportoriented sector led by firms dependent on skilled labor? While it is impossible to say for sure, given a general tenor of anticommunism (expressed in principle if not always followed in practice) at least at the crucial initial period, and without a united social democratic union to act as a counterweight, the temptation for Polish employers to compete with western markets with high skills but lower wages and a more flexible labor regime would likely have been overwhelming.
142. Martin Upchurch, "State, Labour and Market in Post-Revolution Serbia, " Capital & Class 89 (2006).
143. Marko Grdešić and Tibor Meszmann, "Reluctant Militancy: Understanding Unorthodox Labor Action in Croatia and Serbia" (unpublished manuscript, 2007).
144. Grdešić, "Mapping the Paths of the Yugoslav Model. "
145. Feldmann, "Origins of Varieties of Capitalism. "
146. "Unions Protest against Government's Reform Programme, " http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2006/01/feature/si0601303f.htm.
147. Avdagic, "Tripartism and Economic Reforms in Slovenia and Poland, " 50.
148. Buchen, "East European Antipodes"
149. Feldmann, "Emerging Varieties of Capitalism in Transition Countries"
150. Feldmann, "Origins of Varieties of Capitalism. "
151. Korpi, Democratic Class Struggle
152. Korpi, "Power Resources and Employer-Centered Approaches"
153. Huber and Stephens, Development and Crisis of the Welfare State.
154. The timing of the Slovenian strikes, which took place as debates over key institutional transformations were being resolved, formed a distinct "critical juncture" in the formation of the Slovenian political economy. Collier and Collier, "Shaping the Political Arena. "
155. Iversen and Stephens, "Partisan Politics"
156. Cusack, Iversen, and Soskice, "Economic Interests and the Origins of Electoral Systems. "
157. Jaklič, Zagoršek, and Hribernik, "Slovenian Evolutionary Business System Dynamics. "
158. King, "Central European Capitalism in Comparative Perspective. "
159. Based on historical precursors (ca. 1900) alone, Hungary would also be a candidate for coordination, though less so than the Czech lands.
160. The most important variable for Cusack, Iversen, and Soskice is the electoral system, and they argue, following Gourevitch and Shinn, that "current varieties of capitalism are almost perfectly correlated with electoral systems. " Cusack, Iversen, and Soskice, "Economic Interests and the Origins of Electoral Systems, " 373
161. Peter Gourevitch and James Shinn, Political Power and Corporate Control: The New Global Politics of Corporate Governance (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005).
162. This correlation is absent in east central Europe, where most countries adopted some form of proportional representation (though Hungary's system is mixed). Josep M. Colomer, ed., Handbook of Electoral System Choice (Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).
163. Grdešić, "Mapping the Paths of the Yugoslav Model. "
164. Grdešić, "Mapping the Paths of the Yugoslav Model. "
165. Grdešić and Meszmann, "Reluctant Militancy. "
166. Wolfgang Streeck and Kōzō Yamamura, eds., The Origins of Nonliberal Capitalism: Germany and Japan in Comparison, Cornell Studies in Political Economy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001)
167. Wolfgang Streeck and Kathleen Ann Thelen, eds., Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005)
168. Howell, "Varieties of Capitalism. "
169. Streeck and Thelen, Beyond Continuity.