Book Review: Matthew E Carnes, Continuity Despite Change: The Politics of Labor Regulation in Latin America
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917720409 |
| Author | Tim Dorlach |
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsComparative Politics |
Political Studies Review 15(4)
regimes which neoliberal champions of liberal
This book seeks to explain the puzzle of rela-
democracy do not like.
tive continuity of Latin American labour laws
Although the regimes of Venezuela and Iran
‘despite changes in political climate and the
are clearly illiberal, they are nonetheless demo-
international market’ (p. 12). To explain (the
cratic regimes whose problems arise from the
absence of) change in labour laws, the book
political parties and movements that have
develops a political economy explanation that
secured power via democratic means. China and
posits that long-term labour law development
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, are clearly non-
is determined by the distribution of skills in an
democracies, and Russia has a democratic frame
economy, while short-term changes in labour
that masks what is more correctly a neo-patri-
laws are driven by the organisational capacity
monial oligarchy. However, to suggest that it is
of labour. At the same time, skill distribution
authoritarianism which defines these regimes
has more influence on the development of indi-
and is the reason for the challenge they pose is
vidual labour laws, while labour’s organisa-
overly simplistic. Thus, the editors have done a
tional capacity is more consequential for the
disservice to the reader by failing to set out a
development of collective labour laws.
clear definition of what is this ‘authoritarianism’
The book constructs a two-dimensional
they speak of and how it is something other than
labour law policy space, independently map-
a murky catch-all for the opposite of their pre-
ping the stringency of individual labour laws
ferred form of democracy.
(e.g. job security laws) and collective labour
A further way in which this book is prob-
laws (e.g. labour union laws). Based on high
lematic is the somewhat loose use of the con-
and low values on these two dimensions, the
cept of ‘Soft Power’....
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