"In his ambitious book, José Alemán seeks to assess what the third wave of democratization has meant for labor unions and workers . . . The result is a rich mixture of findings and suggestions that represent a real contribution to the study of labor politics in the post ColdWar era . . . Much of the story is inspired by fascinating case studies of Korea and Chile . . . Beyond the case studies, Aleman draws on a range of quantitative and qualitative techniques to demonstrate the relationships among political inclusion, labor market regulation, unit labor costs, and industrial conflict across the globe. The results are highly suggestive." -Perspectives on Politics
"While labour plays an important role in many accounts of
democratisation, we know very little about how it has fared in the aftermath of democracy's 'Third Wave'. And while scholars have long studied the various effects of neo-corporatism in Western Europe, we know equally little about corporatism and its effects in new democracies. José Alemán's Labor Relations in New Democracies: East Asia, Latin America and Europe is an important contribution to filling these gaps. . . Alemán should be applauded, particularly for creating a novel data set of social pacts, and more generally for his close attention to questions of measurement and conceptualisation." - Political Studies Review
"A most welcome contribution to the growing literature on the 'new democracies' . . . Its 200-odd pages containnumerous acute and timely insights into the nature of democracy and labour relations." - Industrial Relations Journal
"A fine contribution to the broad theorizing of labour relations especially in the third-wave democracies . . . Alemán's work is built upon his critical reassessment of resource mobilization and partisan alignment approaches, which fail to adequately explain different degrees of labour remuneration and labour conflict in these polities. Instead, he explicates how strong wage regulation leads to better wage compensation (chapter 2), how strong employment protection is associated with labour's power and low levels of labour disputes (chapter 3), and how such wage and employment regulations enable successful tripartite agreements in new democracies (chapter 4)." -Labour, Capital, and Society
"Alemán's study is a state-of-the art contribution to labor studies and the literature on democratization. Analyzing labor in the global context of '3rd wave' democratization, he employs impressive methods, including cross-national statistical anlaysis, qualitative-comparative analysis (QCA), and case studies in a well-chosen comparison of Chile and South Korea, two of the great economic and political success stories of the last three decades. Alemán shows that variation in the extent to which social dialogue has been instituted in policy regimes explains levels of labor militance and worker welfare. The book, with important subject matter, carefulreasoning, and obvious policy relevance, deserves to be widely read. - Steven Pfaff, Associate Professor, Sociology, and Director, Center for West European Studies, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington
'Alemán helps us understand why the 'Third Wave' of democracy has not delivered the economic goods that organized labor expected in many developing countries. With a series of cross-national quantitative analyses and two rich case studies of South Korea and Chile, he points to ways that economic pressures can constrain the impact of democratic inclusion: while democracy has provided opportunities for increased labor participation in bargaining, labor market deregulation has undercut workers' ability to achieve wage gains and job stability. This book will be of great interest to students of comparative labor politics, democratization, and industrial relations." -Matthew Carnes, Assistant Professor, Department of Government, Georgetown University
'New democratic rights and protections do not always quiet down a country's labor movement. Sometimes they just open up new paths for militancy. In explaining why, José A. Alemán comes at the problem from a number of useful empirical directions, including neat case studies of Chile and South Korea. His global approach has helped him get it just right. - James M. Jasper, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York
'In this innovative work, José A. Alemán offers athorough and comprehensive examination of the interplay of labor, capital, and the state in new democracies. Alemán deftly combines and integrates quantitative cross-national analysis, systematic comparative analysis, and in-depth case studies to construct a compelling portrait of the challenges new democracies face." - Charles C. Ragin, Professor of Sociology and Political Science, University of Arizona
