Trajectories of Labour Market Liberalisation in Spain: An Empirical Approach to the Historical Evolution of Institutional Change

Citation
Cardenas, L. (2023). Trajectories of Labour Market Liberalisation in Spain: An Empirical Approach to the Historical Evolution of Institutional Change. Revista Española De Investigaciones Sociológicas, (183), 121–132. https://doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.183.121
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyse institutional change in the Spanish labour market in from a historical perspective, particularly regarding two main areas: labour regulation and collective bargaining. The main thesis is that it is possible to identify four main stages. Firstly, there was an institutional structure unfavourable to workers, which was overcome by the agency of the labour movement in the period of the so-called desarrollismo (1960-1975). Secondly, the years of transition from dictatorship to democracy (1976-1983) were a period of labour market regulation. Thirdly, there was a period of labour market dualism (1984-1996) based on the application of flexibility at the margin in the face of veto power. This was followed by deregulation (1997-2019), which was a consequence of the weakening of power resources resulting from the previous labour market segmentation.
El objetivo de la nota es analizar desde una perspectiva histórica el cambio institucional en el mercado laboral en España en sus dos principales ámbitos: la regulación del empleo y la negociación colectiva. La tesis principal es que es posible identificar cuatro grandes etapas. Primero, durante el desarrollismo (1960-1975), existió una estructura institucional adversa a los trabajadores que fue superada por la agencia del movimiento obrero. Segundo, el período de transición (1976-1983) se trató de una fase de regulación del mercado laboral. Tercero, un período de dualización del mercado laboral (1984-1996) con base en la aplicación de flexibilidad en el margen ante la existencia de poder de veto. Finalmente, la desregulación (1997-2019) es consecuencia del debilitamiento de los recursos de poder derivado de la segmentación laboral ocurrida previamente.
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