Person: Anderson, Ashley A.
Loading...
Email Address
AA Acceptance Date
Birth Date
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Job Title
Last Name
Anderson
First Name
Ashley A.
Name
Anderson, Ashley A.
1 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Publication Going Political: Labor, Institutions and Democratic Unrest in North Africa(2016-08-24) Anderson, Ashley A.; Ekiert, Grzegorz; Levitsky, Steven; Spirling, Arthur; Cammett, MelaniSince the industrial revolution first united workers and politics, union activism has been a key driver of not only economic progress but also of political change. Where unions have engaged in significant political mobilization, their activism has been critical to the success of anti-authoritarian protests — as cases like South Africa, Poland, South Korea, Brazil and most recently, Tunisia, attest. Where they have remained on the sidelines, however, anti-regime opposition has often been weaker and less successful. What explains variation in labor movements’ decisions to engage in politically-motivated protest within authoritarian regimes? Drawing upon evidence from the Middle East/North Africa, my dissertation attempts to explain this puzzling heterogeneity from an institutional perspective. Challenging the assumption that labor opposition is contingent upon the material benefits offered to trade unions, I highlight the impact that authoritarian institutions, particularly those which structure popular representation and contestation in the regime, have on union decisions to express political demands. I argue that differences in unions’ political mobilization stem from variation in autocrats’ methods of labor incorporation. Where autocrats incorporate labor into representative institutions, coalition building between unions and established parties undermine political activism by coopting the interests of union elites and diminishing vertical accountability between union leaders and the rank- and-file. Conversely, where unions were alienated from formal institutions, the development of “outsider alliances” between union elites, marginalized parties, and rank-and-file members facilitate political mobilization by radicalizing labor agendas and promoting internal democracy within union structures. To make the case, I engage in a comparative analysis of labor protest in Tunisia and Morocco since the inauguration of neoliberal reforms in the 1970s. Using original data on labor protest drawn from English, Arabic and French news sources, I show that despite facing common economic crises and organizational constraints, unions in these two regimes have adopted dramatically different modes of mobilization — from militant political opposition in Tunisia to limited economic protest in Morocco. In the empirical chapters of the dissertation, I trace this divergence to differences in unions’ incorporation within workplace and political institutions, using novel data on legislative and union elections as evidence. Finally, drawing upon archival research and over 100 interviews conducted with labor militants, I supplement these empirical data with case study evidence, which illustrates the way in which formal institutions channel labor demands away from the street, making it less likely for unions to engage in militancy and politically oppose the regime