Ruth Berins Collier

Down but Not Out: Union Resurgence and Segmented Neocorporatism in Argentina (2003–2007):

The shift from state-led import-substitution industrialization to more market-oriented economic models often has the result of shrinking and demobilizing the labor movement. Yet, evidence from Argentina suggests that a subsequent resurgence of even a downsized labor movement may occur and furthermore that a type of “segmented neocorporatism” may be established in the new economic context. We argue that the establishment of this new form of interest intermediation is driven by economic and political factors that are both immediate and longer term. In addition to the short-term condition of the labor market and the political strategy of the government in power, of longer-term importance are structural and institutional conditions that derive from the earlier process of market reform, specifically the nature of sectoral shifts in the economy and the degree of labor law deregulation affecting the “associational power” of unions.

Combining Alternative Perspectives: Internal Trajectories versus External Influences as Explanations of Latin American Politics in the 1940s

This article analyzes Latin American politics in the 1940s with reference to two different explanatory perspectives as they bear on labor politics and regime change. The first focuses on the impact of international historical conjunctures, the second on internal trajectories and a path dependent model of change. The analysis reveals that, although international events left a strong imprint, they did not determine or deflect the unfolding of internal trajectories; indeed, internal dynamics seemed to be a stronger causal factor. However, international factors did help explain the distinctive coloration of the internal patterns, filling in some of the details and helping to account for the timing and intensity of the steps as they unfolded in each country.

Parties, Coups, and Authoritarian Rule: Patterns of Political Change in Tropical Africa

This study analyzes the emergence of different types of authoritarian regimes across 26 countries in tropical Africa in the first decade of independence. Military, one-party plebiscitary one-party, and competitive one-party regimes are explained in terms of the experience with the introduction of competitive politics during decolonization, specifically the way in which decolonization effected party dominance and electoral participation.

Latin America's New World of Work: Changing Traits of Work and Problem Sovling

Transitions to market models have had an important impact on the structure of the labor market and on structures of interest representation of the working classes in Latin America. They have produced pressure for a more flexibiized labor market and a shift within the working classes from the formal to the informal sector. This study analyzes the way conditions of informality affect the capacity of informal workers to engage in problem-solving activities around both materialist issues and political problems.

Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America.

This book is a disciplined, paired comparison of the eight Latin American countries with the longest history of urban commercial and industrial development - Brazil and Chile, Mexico and Venezuela, Uruguay and Colombia, Argentina and Peru. The authors show how and why state party responses to the emergence of an organized working class have been crucial in shaping political coalitions, party systems, patterns of stability or conflict and the broad contours of regimes and their changes. The argument is complex yet clear, the analysis systematic yet nuanced. The focus is on autonomous political variables within particular socioeconomic contexts, the treatment of which is lengthy but rewarding...Overall, a path-breaking volume. - Foreign Affairs Excellent comparative-historical analysis of eight countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela) focuses on emergence of different forms of control and mobilization of the labor movement. By concentrating on alternative strategies of the State in shaping the labor movement, authors are able to explain different trajectories of national political change in countries with longest history of urban, commercial, and industrial development. Important and valuable work includes glossary of terms and extensive index (general and by country). - Handbook of Latin American Studies