Labour Control and Developmental State Theory: A New Perspective on Import‐substitution Industrialization in Latin America

Abstract

Drawing on historical research into the period of import‐substitution industrialization (ISI) in Chile and Argentina between the 1930s and 1960s, this article claims that developmental state theory (DST) obfuscates a crucial feature of state intervention in Latin America. Specifically, despite a long‐standing interest in state–society relations, DST has been unable to incorporate adequately into its analytical framework labour–state relations and labour control in the workplace. This is because DST, in its various guises, privileges state–society relations mediated by institutions from which labour is implicitly or explicitly excluded. Extending the analytical lens of DST, the article combines critical labour‐relations and labour‐process theories to identify the purposive establishment of ‘regimes of labour control’ via changes in institutional and workplace relations. Using this expanded framework, it shows how the often vacillating strategies pursued by the state under ISI in Chile and Argentina, and the inefficient outcomes of ISI in these countries, can be better understood by considering efforts designed to exert control over labour.

The multinational enterprise, development, and the inequality of opportunities: A research agenda

“…Import-Substitution Industrialization resulted in considerable economic restructuring, agrarian reform, investments in knowledge infrastructure, and some globally competitive technology-intensive industries, as well as the birth of some domestic MNEs from the developing world (Cárdenas et al, 2016). Reducing within-country inequality through a redistribution of the gains of ISI was also a political priority in some countries, especially where workers were more active and militant in demanding rights (Fishwick, 2019). In Latin America, prior to the 1970s, considerable political power lay with unions and working classes, and issues such as a legal minimum wage, on the one hand, helped reduce within-country inequality and improve social cohesiveness, but, on the other hand, reduced their attractiveness to MNEs (Jenkins, 1991).…”

“Power to the People!”: The Catalytic Role of the Black Power Movement in Trinidad and Tobago’s Industrialization

“…Amartya Sen (1999) and others, therefore, argued for a conceptualization of development that went beyond capital accumulation and growth indicators to encompass political and civil liberties and the expansion of human capabilities (see also Fishwick 2018;Stewart et al 2018). Coalitions between the state and the wider society provide critical feedback and intelligence on investment and other development issues that help improve governance arrangements, accountability, and policy implementation (Vu 2007;Kuhonta 2011;Hsu 2018;Karagiannis et al 2021).…”

“…Repressive measures included labor control and wage suppression, poor working conditions, and restrictions on civil freedoms like collective bargaining and mobilization (Sen 1999; Woo-Cumings 1999; Chang 2013). Often supported by the economic elite, labor repression was central to the ability of these states to transform the economy and expand into competitive high-technology manufacturing sectors (Anner 2003; Gore 2014; Fishwick 2018; Bam and Bruyne 2019; Weiss and Thurbon 2020). These states’ democratic transition came only after industrial transformation unfolded.…”

“…Most other countries emerging from European colonial rule did not experience this confluence of conditions (see for example, Mbembe 2001). Second, beyond the recognition of early DST's silence (and/or implicit acceptance) on development/accumulation strategies that are predicated upon repressive labor practices and the restriction of political and civil liberties (Deyo 1989;Sen 1999;Chang 2013;Fine and Pollen 2018;Fishwick 2018), this paper goes further by drawing attention to the fact that labor repression has long been racialized (Cox 1948;Du Bois 2008[1903 ; Williams 2021Williams [1944). Social movements in many countries have targeted state policies that integrate with the imperial and racist architecture of the global political economy, thereby constraining industrialization strategies available to the state to a greater extent than in authoritarian contexts that repressed organized labor.…”

Unpacking state-led upgrading: empirical evidence from Uzbek horticulture value chain governance

“…Hence, organisational upgrading is a conceptual tool useful to make explicit and assess whether public governance can be an alternative to the private buyer-led governance, but also whether it is able to organise a developmental governance which makes domestic agents and firms capture value and power within the GVC/GPNs (Gereffi, 2014;Fishwick, 2018;Ponte and Sturgeon, 2014) and societal benefits in and outside the GVC/GPNs.…”