2 Mexican Labor and Structural Reform Under Salinas: New Unionism or Old Stalemate?

Despite repeated conflict with organized labor, the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988–94) pushed an aggressive divestment agenda that transformed Mexico into Latin America's leading privatizer. Explanations of Salinas's achievements typically emphasize centralized presidential power (including control over the ruling party) and autonomy; technocratic and political savvy; and weak labor opposition. This article questions such a pure “capacity‐outcome” approach. Of equal importance are the learning effects of repeated interaction between the state and labor, which changed the course of divestment struggles and thereby influenced their outcomes. Lessons learned in successive confrontations led to patterns of interaction conducive to widescale privatization. The article develops this argument through comparative analysis of major divestment episodes in the aviation, mining, steel, and telecommunications sectors.

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Corporatism and Democratic Transition: State and Labor during the Salinas and Zedillo Administrations

Samstad

2002

Lat. Am. polit. soc.

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A long process of free‐market reforms and gradual democratization seems to be dismantling Mexico's corporatist system of labor representation. A thorough analysis of the country's corporatist institutions yields theoretical reasons to believe that Mexico's practice of labor relations is indeed changing. An empirical examination of the nation's labor congress and ruling party during the two previous presidential administrations (1988–2000) demonstrates that corporatism is being transformed at a practical level, although the process of reform has been complex and uneven at best. The continuing strength of an officialist labor sector will complicate the task of establishing a new system of labor representation, a problem that may have important implications for future democratic consolidation.

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2 Mexican Labor and Structural Reform Under Salinas: New Unionism or Old Stalemate?

Cited by 4 publications

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Labour: From national resistance to international politics

Labour: From national resistance to international politics

Learning the Limits of Power: Privatization and State-Labor Interactions in Mexico

Corporatism and Democratic Transition: State and Labor during the Salinas and Zedillo Administrations

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