Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-14T19:31:43.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Strikes and Labor Organization in Hybrid Regimes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2007

GRAEME B. ROBERTSON
GRAEME B. ROBERTSON
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Existing theories of labor protest depend on independent organizations representing workers. However, in many countries most workers are either not organized at all or are in labor unions intended for control, not representation. This is particularly the case in partially liberalized or hybrid regimes where, despite the introduction of electoral competition, autonomous, democratic organizations representing labor are not well developed. Yet such workers do protest. Drawing on an original new dataset from one hybrid regime, post-Communist Russia, I develop a theory of labor protest and of the institutional mechanisms used by elites to influence it. Instead of being a function of union membership or characteristics of the information environment, as the existing literature would have it, protest occurs when it is in the interest of powerful elements of the elite, or when economic conditions are truly desperate.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 101 , Issue 4 , November 2007 , pp. 781 - 798
Copyright
© 2007 by the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2006. The Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ashenfelter Orley, and George E. Johnson. 1969. “Bargaining Theory, Trade Unions and Industrial Strike Activity.” In American Economic Review, vol. 59, No. 40.Google Scholar
Ashwin Sarah. 1999. Russian Workers: The Anatomy of Patience. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Bensusàn Graciela. 2000. El Modelo Mexicano de Regulación Laboral. México: Plaza y Valdés.
Berman Sheri. 2007. “Lessons from Europe.” Journal of Democracy (January): 28– 41.Google Scholar
Boix Carles. 2003. Democracy and Redistribution. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Borisov Vadim. 1997. Shakhtery v Rabochem Dvizhenii: Tekushchii Istoricheskii Moment. Miners In the Workers Movement: The Contemporary Historical Moment. Moscow: IPPS.
Breslauer George W. 1999. “Boris Yel'tsin as Patriarch.” Post-Soviet Affairs. (April–June): (186–200).Google Scholar
Breslauer George W. 2001. “Personalism Versus Proceduralism: Boris Yeltsin and the Institutional Fragility of the Russian System.” In Russia in the New Century: Stability of Disorder, ed. Victoria E. Bonnell, and George W. Breslauer, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Brett Jeanne M., and Stephen B. Goldberg. 1979. “Wildcat Strikes in Bituminous Coal Mining,” in Industrial and Labor Relations Review 32 (July, No. 4): 465– 83.Google Scholar
Card David. 1988. “Longitudinal Analysis of Strike Activity.” Journal of Labor Economics 6 (April, No. 6): 147– 76.Google Scholar
Christensen Paul Thomas. 1999. Russia's Workers in Transition: Labor, Management, and the State Under Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press.
Clarke Simon. 2003. Russian Trade Unions and Industrial Relations in Transition. Macmillan: Palgrave.
Cohn Samuel. 1993. When Strikes Make Sense and Why: Lessons from Third Republic French Coal Miners. New York: Plenum Press.
Cohn Samuel, and Adrienne Eaton. 1989. “Historical Limits in Neoclassical Strike Theories: Evidence from French Coal Mining, 1890–1935.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 42 (July, No. 4): 649– 62.Google Scholar
Collier Ruth Berins. 1999. Paths Toward Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in Western Europe and South America. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cousineau Jean-Michel, and Robert Lacroix. 1986. “Imperfect Information and Strikes: an analysis of Canadian experience, 1967–82.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 39 (3): 377– 87.Google Scholar
Crowley Stephen. 1997. Hot Coal, Cold Steel: Russian and Ukrainian Workers from the End of the Soviet Union to the Post-Communist Transformations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Davis Sue. 2001. Trade Unions in Russia and Ukraine, 1985–95. New York: Palgrave.
Diamond Larry. 2002. “Elections Without Democracy: Thinking About Hybrid Regimes.” Journal of Democracy 13 (April, No. 2).Google Scholar
Ekiert Grzegorz, and Jan Kubik. 1998. “Contentious Politics in New Democracies: East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, 1989–93.” World Politics 50: 547– 81.Google Scholar
Ekiert Grzegorz, and Jan Kubik. 2001. Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, 1989–1993. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Franzosi Roberto. 1989. “One Hundred Years of Strike Statistics, Methodological and Theoretical Issues in Quantitative Strike Research.” Industrial Relations Review 42 (3).Google Scholar
Franzosi Roberto. 1995. The Puzzle of Strikes: Class and State Strategies in Postwar Italy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Frye Timothy. 2002. “The Perils of Polarization: Economic Performance in the Post-Communist World.” World Politics 54 (April): 308– 37.Google Scholar
Gimpelson Vladimir, and Daniel Treisman. 2002. “Fiscal Games and Public Employment: A Theory With Evidence From Russia.” World Politics 54:2 (January): 145– 83.Google Scholar
Golden Miriam A. 1997. Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gouldner Alvin Ward. 1954. Wildcat Strike. Yellow Springs OH: Antioch Press.
Greskovits Bela. 1998. The Political Economy of Protest and Patience: East European and Latin American Transformations Compared. Budepest, Hungary: Central European University Press.
Gunderson Morley, and Angelo Melino. 1990. “The Effects of Public Policy on Strike Duration.” Journal of Labor Economics 8: 3 (July): 295– 316.Google Scholar
Gurr Ted Robert. 1970. Why Men Rebel. Princeton, NJ, Published for the Center of International Studies: Princeton University Press.
Hale Henry E. 2003. “Explaining Machine Politics in Russia's Regions: Economy, Ethnicity, and Legacy.” Post-Soviet Affairs 19:3 (July–September): 228– 630.Google Scholar
Haimson Leopold H., and Ronald Petrusha. 1989. “Two Strike Waves In Imperial Russia, 1905–1907 and 1912–1914.” In Strikes, Wars, and Revolutions in an International Perspective: Strike Waves in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, ed. Leopold H. Haimson and Charles Tilly. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hausman Jerry, Bronwyn H. Hall, and Zvi Griliches. 1984. Econometric Models for Count Data with an Application to the Patents-R&D Relationship.” Econometrica 52: 4 (July): 909– 38.Google Scholar
Hicks John Richard. 1932. The Theory of Wages. London: Macmillan.
Hirschman Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Javeline Debra. 2003. Protest and the Politics of Blame: The Russian Response to Unpaid Wages. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Kahan Arcadius, and Blair Ruble, eds. 1979. Industrial Labor In The USSR. Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
Kennan John, and Robert Wilson. 1989. “Strategic Bargaining Models and the Interpretation of Strike Data.” Journal of Applied Econometrics 4 (Suppl., December): S87– S130.Google Scholar
Knowles K. G. J. C. 1952. Strikes: A Study in Industrial Conflict. Oxford, UK: Bond Blackwell.
Korpi Walter, and Michael Shalev. 1980. “Strikes, Power and Politics in the Western Nations, 1900–1976.” In Political Power and Social Theory, Vol 1, ed. Maurice Zeitlin. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Kriesi Hanspeter, Ruud Koopmans, Willem Duyvendak, and Marco G. Giugni. 1995. New Social Movements in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Kubicek Paul. 2002. “Civil Society, Trade Unions and Post-Soviet Democratization: Evidence from Russia and Ukraine.” Europe-Asia Studies 54 (4): 603– 24.Google Scholar
Kurtz Marcus. 2004. “The Dilemmas of Democracy in the Open Economy: Lessons from Latin America.” World Politics 56: 2 (January).Google Scholar
Levitsky Steven, and Lucan Way, “The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism.” Journal of Democracy 13: 2: (April).
Maksimov V. I. 2004. Rabochie v Reformiruemoi Rossii: 1990s do Nachalogo 2000kh Godov (Workers in A Reformed Russia: 1990s to beginning of 2000s). St. Petersburg: Nauka.
Mandel David. 2000. “‘Why is there no revolt?’ The Russian Working Class and the Labour Movement.” The Socialist Register. London, UK: Merlin Press.
Michels Roberto. 1911. Political Parties. Glencoe, IL: Free Press).
MFK Renaissance, From The Sublime to the Ridiculous. A Credit Rating Model of Russia's Regions, April 1998.
Mosley Layna, and Saika Uno. Forthcoming. “Racing to the Bottom or Climbing to the Top? Economic Globalization and Labor Rights.” Comparative Political Studies.
Murillo Maria Victoria. 2001. Labor Unions, Partisan Coalitions, and Market Reforms in Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Oliver Pamela E., and Daniel J. Myers. 2003. “The Coevolution of Social Movements.” Mobilization 8: 1– 25.Google Scholar
Przeworski Adam. 1991. Democracy and The Market: Political and Economic Reforms In Eastern Europe and Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Richter Kasper. 2006. “Wage Arrears and Economic Voting in Russia.” American Political Science Review 100 (Issue 1, February): 133– 45.Google Scholar
Robertson Graeme B. 2004. “Leading Labor: Unions, Politics and Protest in New Democracies.” Comparative Politics 36: 3 (April).Google Scholar
Sandoval Salvador A. M. 1993. Social Change and Labor Unrest in Brazil Since 1945. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Schedler Andreas, ed. 2006. Electoral Authoritarianism: The Dynamics of Unfree Competition. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Schmitter Philippe. 1974. “Still the Century of Corporatism.” World Politics 36 (1) (January): 85– 131.Google Scholar
Shorter Edward, and Charles Tilly. 1971. “The Shape of Strikes in France 1830–1960.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 13.Google Scholar
Snyder David. 1977. “Early North American Strikes: A Reinterpretation.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 30:3 (April): 325– 41.Google Scholar
Statacorp. 2001. Stata Statistical Software: Release 7.0. College Station, TX: Stata Corporation.
Stoner-Weiss Kathryn. 2001. “The Limited Reach of Russia's Party System: Underinstitutionalization in Dual Transitions.” Politics and Society 29:3: 385– 414.Google Scholar
Tarrow Sidney. 1998. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Tilly Charles. 2004. Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1650–2000. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Zetka James R. Jr., 1992. “Work Organization and Wildcat Strikes in the U. S. Automobile Industry 1946 to 1963.” American Sociological Review 57:2 (April): 214– 26.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.