Opening Up by Cracking Down
Labor Repression and Trade Liberalization in Democratic Developing Countries

Details how democratic developing countries used labor repression to overcome labor union opposition to free trade.

Adam Dean (Author)

9781108478519, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 October 2022

180 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

'In Opening Up by Cracking Down, Adam Dean proves that no serious student of international political economy can neglect the crucial role of labor unions – and, even more, of democratic governments' repression of unions – in setting trade policy in new democracies.' Ron Rogowski, University of California, Los Angeles

How did democratic developing countries open their economies during the late-twentieth century? Since labor unions opposed free trade, democratic governments often used labor repression to ease the process of trade liberalization. Some democracies brazenly jailed union leaders and used police brutality to break the strikes that unions launched against such reforms. Others weakened labor union opposition through subtler tactics, such as banning strikes and retaliating against striking workers. Either way, this book argues that democratic developing countries were more likely to open their economies if they violated labor rights. Opening Up By Cracking Down draws on fieldwork interviews and archival research on Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Turkey, and India, as well as quantitative analysis of data from over one hundred developing countries to places labor unions and labor repression at the heart of the debate over democracy and trade liberalization in developing countries.

Introduction
1. Open democracies: how labor repression facilitates trade liberalization
2. Trade liberalization around the world: cross-national quantitative tests
3. Democracy is not enough: labor rights and trade policy in Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Turkey, and India
4. India's middle path: preventive arrests and general strikes
5. Opening Argentina: Menem's repression of the CGT
6. Conclusion
Appendix
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: International institutions [JPSN], International relations [JPS], Comparative politics [JPB], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP]