This article examines the impact of the current economic and financial crisis on the consistency of the corporatist dynamic that has oriented governments, trade unions and employers' associations towards consensus in Spain, Italy and Portugal over the past two decades. Following the analytical framework developed by Öbert et al. (2011), which interprets corporatism as a process of political dialogue, we analyse whether the conditions that make exchange possible have been altered during the crisis and, ask, if this is the case, whether such a transformation is cyclical or structural in nature. New limitations on the autonomy of national governments with regard to the design of socio-economic policies have arisen. These are related to the supervision of national politics by supranational institutions, the introduction of which has profoundly altered some of the basic requirements for corporatist political dialogue: the mandate or sovereignty in decision-making and the value of the assets available for exchange between stakeholders.

ResumenLos pactos sociales han sustentado la agenda de reformas socioeconómicas en la mayor parte de países de Europa occidental a lo largo de las últimas décadas. Sin embargo, la irrupción de la crisis económica ha erosionado la orientación general hacia el acuerdo. Desde 2008 se ha producido una deriva desde la «negociación hacia la imposición», que ha resultado particularmente intensa en el Sur de Europa. En España y Portugal, la puesta en marcha de reformas unilaterales por parte de los gobiernos bajo la vigilancia de las instituciones comunitarias ha provocado el debilitamiento de los pactos sociales. El artículo evalúa la reconfiguración de los equilibrios entre gobiernos y agentes sociales en estos dos países en el contexto de la crisis económica. Para ello, se analiza la emergencia de una nueva dinámica de intercambio político corporatista que combina el diálogo discontinuo y de corto alcance con la confrontación. PalabRas claveAgentes sociales; Conflicto sociolaboral; Diálogo social; Gobiernos; Intercambio político corporatista. abstRactIn most European countries, the reform agenda on socioeconomic issues has been backed on social pacts throughout the last decades. However, the upsurge of the economic crisis has hampered this general orientation towards agreement and consensus. From 2008 and on there has been a transformation «from negotiation to imposition» which has been particularly severe in Southern Europe. In Spain and Portugal, the implementation of unilateral reforms by the governments under the surveillance of the European institutions has provoked the weakening of social pacts. The article evaluates the reconfiguration of the relation between governments and social partners in these two countries as a consequence of the economic crisis. It also analyses the emergence of a new dynamic of corporatist political exchange which combines irregular and short-range dialogue with confrontation.

RESUMENEl término innovación ha adquirido un carácter casi omnipresente en el contexto de la intensificación competitiva que acompaña a la globalización. El fomento de la capacidad innovadora figura entre los principales objetivos de los gestores públicos y privados. Sin embargo, se carece de un concepto académico debidamente elaborado de innovación, más allá de los enunciados genéricos y estrechos comúnmente manejados en los ámbitos económicos y de negocio. El artículo explora un conjunto de fuentes que podrían utilizarse para elaborar un concepto sociológico de innovación susceptible de ser incorporado a las actuales teorías sobre organización económica y cambio institucional. Para ello, se revisan tres corrientes de reflexión teórica sobre innovación, que se integran en un mismo paradigma de la innovación: las aportaciones de la Economía Política de Marx y Schumpeter; las contribuciones de la Economía Evolutiva; y la Economía Política del Desarrollo. A partir de ellas, se propone una re-conceptualización sociológica de la idea de innovación ajustada a la teoría socioeconómica de instituciones dinámicas. PAlAbRAS clAvEInnovación, conocimiento, competitividad, cambio institucional, sociología económica..

PurposeThis article aims to develop an original conceptual approach for the research and analysis of European works councils (EWCs) through a critical examination of the theoretical debate on the Europeanization of industrial relations and the main results of the huge body of quantitative and qualitative empirical studies of these transnational bodies for effective worker participation.Design/methodology/approachStarting from the authors' own experiences in qualitative case‐study research, they summarise the main developments of EWCs as the most advanced institutional piece in the emerging dimension of European industrial relations and discuss the strength and weakness of the different approaches employed in EWC research.FindingsFrom a perspective of “political economy of European integration” the development of EWCs shows the changing power constellations at the micro‐ and meso‐level of transnational firm complexes. More than 800 EWCs councils with thousands of workers' representatives generate hope for an emergent system of industrial relations, but globalization, economic crisis, intensification of regime competition or the consequences on employment of relocation, restructuring and downsizing are threatening advances in this fundamental piece of the European social project.Originality/valueThe paper offers not only a comprehensive state of the art of theoretical debate and empirical research on EWCs, but develops an original and innovative analytical approach for future research. In a meso‐political perspective, linking together micro‐politics with the interaction of the firm with other collective actors, namely public authorities, trade unions and employers' associations at different levels, transnational industrial relations at company level are best analysed as dynamic networks of actors embedded in the framework of the transnational corporation, conceived as a political complex with different actors struggling for increasing their influence on corporate decision‐making processes.

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