Workers without Power: Agency, Legacies, and Labour Decline in East European Varieties of Capitalism

Abstract:     
This article revisits the case for paying more attention to agency and strategy in theories of post-communist politics and society. I analyze two trends of major social and political significance in Central and Eastern Europe between 1989 and 2007: the apparent political inconsequentiality of rising unemployment and the causes and consequences of the dramatic decline of organized labour, across a wide variety of political and institutional settings. While prevailing explanations have emphasized institutional and ideological legacies of the communist past, I point to theoretical reasons for why the 'unsettled times' of transformation may have been particularly conducive to elite agency. Looking beyond legacies can shed light on the degree to which elites have channeled the expression of worker' reform grievances towards socially peaceful but, possibly, politically illiberal repertoires of expression. Pointing to past developments across a number of advanced and developing democracies, I place post-communist labour decline within a larger comparative and historical context. Lastly, I indicate how the erosion of labour power has influenced the particular models of democracy and the varieties of capitalism which have been emerging in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989.

Keywords: unemployment politics, trade union politics, models of capitalism, public policies, elite strategy, liberal democracy and illiberal politics

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