Labor Under Strain
The Latin American Right and the Politics of Market Reform
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24216910 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrés Schipani (0000-0002-0959-8913, University of San Andrés), Olivia Berisso (University of San Andrés), Tomás Divizia (University of San Andrés) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-32 |
| Publication date | 2026-09-29 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Latin American Politics and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1531-426X • E-ISSN: 1548-2456 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/lap.2026.10070 |
| OpenAlex | W7214628054 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 91 |
What explains differences in labor market reforms among conservative governments in Latin America during the 2010s–20s? Analyzing the 2000s “pink tide” as a critical juncture, we argue that two policy legacies account for this cross-national variation. First, the degree of labor movement empowerment under leftist governments conditioned whether subsequent conservative administrations pursued radical or more moderate reforms. Second, labor movement cohesion—shaped by the encompassment of confederations, partisan alignments, and bargaining institutions—determined whether governments pursued inequitable (targeting specific segments of the workforce) or equitable reforms. We analyze the administrations of Temer and Bolsonaro in Brazil, Macri and Milei in Argentina, and Lacalle Pou in Uruguay. Our main contributions are to examine the seldom-explored distributional equity of austerity reforms in Latin America, demonstrating that under conditions of acute fiscal stress the public–private divide becomes a central dimension of labor market reform, and to introduce labor movement cohesion as a new explanatory variable in labor policy analysis.
Argentina · Austerity · Brazil · Collective bargaining · Conservative government · distributional equity · fiscal pressure · Jair Bolsonaro · labour market reform · Latin American right · party alignment · Pink Tide · public and private spheres · Temer · Uruguay · Labor Movements and Unions · Latin American socio-political dynamics · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Labor Unions, Partisan Coalitions, and Market Reforms in Latin America
The Rise of Ethnic Politics in Latin America
The Resurgence of the Latin American Left
Business Politics and the State in Twentieth-Century Latin America
The Transformation of the Workers' Party in Brazil, 1989–2009
Politics in Time
Reframing public service employment relations
Social Policy Expansion in Latin America
Development and Crisis of the Welfare State
Welfare and Party Politics in Latin America
Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity
Social Democracy Inside Out
The Transition from Capitalism to Socialism
Hierarchical Capitalism in Latin America
La negociación colectiva en el primer gobierno de izquierda del Uruguay
From Labor Politics to Machine Politics
Latin American Class Structures
Labour market deregulation and the decline of labour power in North America and Western Europe
From Labor Law to Employment Law
Is the Informal Sector Politically Different? (Null) Answers from Latin America
Organizational and partisan brokerage of social benefits
When incumbents successfully retrench big and popular social policies
The reconstruction of business interests after the ISI collapse
The politics of neoliberal economic reform in South America, 1980–1994
Trade union strength, business power, and labor policy reform
How the Eurozone disempowers trade unions
Back from the Cold? Progressive Politics and Social Policy Paradigms in Southern Europe after the Great Recession
How party linkages shape austerity politics
State‐led wage devaluation in Southern Europe in the wake of the Eurozone crisis
Under pressure. Economic constraints, electoral politics and labour market reforms in Southern Europe in the decade of the Great Recession
Neoliberal Populism in Latin America and Eastern Europe
Old Carrots, New Sticks
Welfare-State Retrenchment Revisited
The Latin American Left's Mandate
The New Politics of the Welfare State
Easy and Hard Redistribution
Disrupting Regulation, Regulating Disruption
Left Behind
What Capital Wants
Adjustment Policies, Union Structures, and Strategies of Mobilization
Social Movements and Policy Entrenchment
Fragmentation Without Cleavages? Endogenous Fractionalization in the Brazilian Party System
Leading Labor
Latin America's Reactive Assemblies and Proactive Presidents
The Rise of Segmented Neo-Corporatism in South America
Informative Regress
Effective” Number of Parties
With a Little Help from my Friends
The Paradox of Globalization
Social Protection and Economic Integration
Redistribution Under the Right in Latin America
The Politics of Retrenchment in a Social Democratic Welfare State
Courting Informal Workers
What makes a big demonstration? Exploring the impact of mobilization strategies on the size of demonstrations
The Rise of Latin America's Two Lefts
The Study of Critical Junctures
Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics
State Formation and Social Policy in the United States
Privatizing Risk without Privatizing the Welfare State
Dimensões Da Crise Do Sindicalismo Brasileiro
Social Policies and Center-Right Governments in Argentina and Chile
Economic Vulnerability and Partisanship in Latin America
Indigenous Parties and Democracy in Latin America
Frente Amplio and the Crafting of a Social Democratic Alternative in Uruguay
Business Power and Tax Reform
Latin America's Polarization in Comparative Perspective
Policy Legacies, Sociopolitical Coalitions, and the Limits of the Right Turn in Latin America
The Rise of Public Sector Unions in the Twenty-First Century
Solidarity against All Odds
Institutionalizing Dualism
Down but Not Out
Social Policy and Collective Action
Path dependence in historical sociology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |