EXTRACTING LABOR FROM ITS OWNER

The Asian economic crisis in 1997 helped bring down Suharto's authoritarian regime in 1998. At the same time it paved the way for more measures of economic liberalization. Some of these measures have taken the form of labor market liberalization, which aims to increase the labor market's ability to adjust to changing economic conditions by clearing what are seen as burdensome regulations, or “rigidities” as they are known in economic parlance. An important instrument in this effort is the private employment agency, which the Manpower Act no. 13/2003 introduced in 2003. This article argues that the introduction of these agencies has created opportunities for various actors in society to take advantage of the less-protected workers in the uncertain waters of the post-Suharto labor regime. In the process, the nature of industrial relations has also been changed in a way that is more predatory than liberal. Ultimately the agencies help erode the hopes for a better life for workers and undermine the revival of labor political rights in Indonesia.     

DJnomics and the transformation of the developmental state

Since the Asian financial crisis, the Korean state under Kim Dae Jung has witnessed significant challenges from foreign capital as well as from organized labor. Regime transition has influenced the social and political relations between the state and big business (chaebol). The traditional developmental state has gradually eroded as the power and capacity of the state was increasingly affected by economic globalization. The Korean economy has been transformed from a traditional developmental state model characterized by a hierarchical and authoritative relationship between the government and conglomerates into the market-oriented economic model.     

Soviet Assessments of Economic Reforms in Other Socialist Countries

A prominent American economist pieces together and analyzes Soviet assessments of economic reforms in other socialist countries. Included in the author's analysis are studies of Soviet specialists investigating changes in the administrative organization of the state sector, planning, pricing, banking, labor, agriculture, nonstate activity, and foreign economic relations, within the framework of a socialist planned economy. Also covered are more recent Soviet studies focusing on privatization, marketization, and government regulation in the transition to a capitalist market economy—work that influenced decisions about economic reforms in the Soviet Union. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P21, B20.     

Gorbachev: “Radically” Implementing Brezhnev's Reforms

Prospects for realization of the current round of economic reforms proposed by the new Soviet leadership are critically analyzed in light of the fate of similar measures embodied in the 1965 (Brezhnev/Kosygin) reforms. Levels of genuine restructuring incorporated in the present reforms are thought to be inadequate to support the major objectives of steamlining decision making and increasing autonomy at the enterprise level. As in the past, policy changes (now embodied in the labor discipline campaign) rather than reforms per se will be relied upon to provide much of the improvement in economic performance. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 113, 124.     

The Koreans of Japan: An Issue of Human Rights

Abstract

By 1965, Taiwan has changed from a labor surplus economy into a labor shortage economy. This article examines how rising demand for labor due to rapid economic growth in Taiwan has been met since 1965. This article attempts to answer 1) Where did the labor supply come from? 2) Has all of the potential labor supply been tapped and exhausted? 3) Is it possible for labor shortage and unutilized labor reserve to occur simultaneously? The authors hope that this study will lead to a better understanding of the limitation of the free market mechanism and help identify the proper public policies to enhance labor utilization.     

Labor control in worker's perspectives

This article challenges the allegations in the existing literature concerning the effectiveness of the labor control system in Taiwan. The theoretical debates on the linkage between Taiwan's labor regime and the political/economic systems are critically reviewed. Mechanisms and practices of state and enterprise control of labor are analyzed. Utilizing data from an empirical survey, the effectiveness of the labor control system is evaluated by examining workers' perspectives on trade unions, labor dispute settlements, welfare practices, and employee participation. The results indicate that the alleged effectiveness of Taiwan's labor regime is in doubt, both at the state and enterprise level, and is subject to further empirical investigation.     

Panel on Growth and Technology in Perestroyka

A part of the proceedings of the first joint Soviet Economy roundtable, focused on the pivotal role of modern technology in perestroyka, is presented in the form of questions and answers reflecting a lively debate between distinguished Soviet and American economists. Adaptation to new technologies is analyzed in light of uskoreniye, plan priorities, and a variety of factors influencing economic growth. Also debated are issues relating to enterprises and industries, particularly within the context of contrasts between the civilian and military economies. Specific issues such as the tradeoffs between centralization and autonomy are discussed in some detail. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 621.     

日本农业发展的困境及政策调整

日本农业发展一直以高关税、高补贴著称,尽管政权更迭,这一政策取向基本保持不变。但是随着国内外政治经济环境的变化,其农业政策也在不断进行调整、修正和补充。近年来,日本出生率下降、人口老龄化问题日益严重,农业劳动力减少,加之耕地面积降低,以及跨太平洋战略经济伙伴关系(TPP)协议对农业影响的不确定性,日本农业政策亟需调整。2015年日本出台了新的《食品、农业与农村地区基本规划》,对今后5~10年的农业发展进行了规划。文章将以此为基础分析日本农业发展面临的困境,并简要介绍日本新的农业政策。     

The Political Construction of Foreign Workers in Japan

Japan organizes its labor markets for foreign workers hierarchically according to “race’ or “nationality.” Zainichi foreigners and nikkeijin are at the high end of the racial hierarchy with better jobs, higher pay, and better working conditions than other foreign workers. At the bottom end are South Asians with casual jobs, poor pay, and dangerous working environments. This racialized hierarchy, which produces differentiated wages and other privileges across different groups of foreign workers, is a political construction of Japanese government officials, who form policies that both establish the legal superiority of certain races over others and constrain the operation of each tier of foreign workers. Japanese employers perpetuate this labor market arrangement by cooperating with government bureaus and yakuza in maintaining labor disciplines tailored to each racial group. These actions create and sustain a racialized economy in Japan that is characterized by inferior jobs, little security, and few benefits for certain sectors of the labor market.     

Labor militancy and Taiwan's export-led industrialization

This article focuses on the various patterns of labor militancy in the process of Taiwan's export-led industrialization. It elaborates the variables that contribute to the various patterns of labor militancy and the possible causal relationships between them from three crucial dimensions — economic performances of export-led industrialization, the effects of a politicized environment, and the interaction between labor activists, government and rank-and-filers. By using evidence from Taiwan, it develops a two-dimensional diagram and testifies four propositions. First, export-led industrialization is not always associated with the deterioration of living standards and increasing material hardships, neither does it inevitably give rise to anti-system labor militancy. Secondly, the rise and the intensity of labor militancy have much to do with a politicized environment. Thirdly, when a politicized setting is given, labor militancy which arises in the midst of export expansion tends to be instrumentalist, whilst that arising in export contraction is prone to be anti-system. Lastly, no matter what type of labor militancy, it is more likely that the labor rank-and filers with withdraw from the militant mobilization when their economic claims are met, while the labor activists and politicians persist until they have been granted political concessions.     

Labor Reform and Dual Transitions in Brazil and the Southern Cone

The sequencing of transitions to democracy and to a market economy shaped the outcome of labor law reform and prospects for expanded labor rights in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Argentina and Brazil experienced democratic transitions before market economic reforms were consolidated in the 1990s. During the transition, unions obtained prolabor reforms and secured rights that were enshrined in labor law. In posttransition democratic governments, market reforms coincided with efforts to reverse earlier labor protections. Unable to block many harmful reforms, organized labor in Argentina and Brazil did conserve core interests linked to organizational survival and hence to future bargaining leverage. In Chile this sequence was reversed. Market economic policies and labor reform were consolidated under military dictatorship. During democratic transition, employers successfully resisted reforms that would expand labor rights. This produced a limited scope of organizational resources for Chilean unions and reduced prospects for future improvements.     

Soviet Economy: A Welcome Addition to an Important Field of Study

The results of the inaugural meeting of a panel on the Soviet economy, convened by the editors of Soviet Economy, are summarized. The panel noted that 1985 economic performance had been fairly good by recent Soviet standards, although the external trade balance had deteriorated sharply. Turning to the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (FYPXII) and the annual plan for 1986, the panel noted the clearly taut nature of both plans, and the apparent inconsistencies between them. The consensus was that the FYPXII targets would be very difficult to achieve, although outsiders may find it hard to judge due to the inherent ambiguities in measuring quality changes, and the potential for significant hidden inflation in growth statistics. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124).     

Meeting the Challenges of Industrial Restructuring: Labor Reform and Enforcement in Latin America

Despite a strengthening of collective labor rights in Latin America over the last 15 years, most labor movements in the region have lost power because neither the content nor the enforcement mechanisms associated with the labor reforms fully took into consideration the challenges presented by economic restructuring. Reforms facilitating union formation did not strengthen unions but instead increased union fragmentation. Collective bargaining structures did not respond to the exigencies of international outsourcing; and the initial round of reforms in the 1990s did not contemplate the need to strengthen labor law enforcement mechanisms at a time when heightened international competition created a need for greater state vigilance of labor standards. Recent reforms or proposed reforms hold more promise for labor, but truly union‐friendly labor relations regimes require deeper changes. A review of several Latin American cases is followed by a closer examination of Brazil and El Salvador.     

Can Lebanon's Economy Be Saved? A Plan for Revival

The recent financial and economic meltdown in Lebanon is the result of 30 years of social, economic, financial, and fiscal mismanagement, amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic and further exacerbated by the Beirut port explosion. Lebanese citizens’ trust, as well as the international community's trust in the government, have unfortunately been destroyed. Consequently, Lebanon's sole option is to rebuild confidence in the government and public institutions by implementing economic reforms and to seek an IMF program to pave the way for additional financing from other international sources. The most important confidence-building step is a clear financial and economic plan that has the support of all key stakeholders. This article presents a road map for a reforms-driven, export-led growth strategy for Lebanon. Ultimately, the goal is to jump-start the economy and put it on a path of sustainable, inclusive, and equitable economic growth. Such growth should be grounded in a small, open-economy model and driven by low tariffs, a flexible exchange rate regime, and a dynamic export sector built on competitive and comparative advantages. This plan partially builds on proposals and recommendations provided by previous economic plans and policy notes.     

The imperial counter offensive: Contradictions,challenges and opportunities

A noteworthy lacuna in the voluminous literature dedicated to the “globalization” phenomenon has been sustained discussion of the position of organized labor. This article attempts to remedy this deficit by considering the experiences of two geographically adjacent, but very different nations: Australia and Indonesia. Concentrating on the last twenty years or so, when the general restructuring of international economic activity gathered pace, the article analyses the separate experiences of each country's labor force, before considering what such a comparative analysis reveals about labor's overall position in a global economy. It is suggested that while the outlook for organized labor is generally bleak, contingent national circumstance remains an important determinant of labor's developmental trajectory.     

ECONOMIC CRISIS AND RESTRUCTURING IN SOUTH KOREA: Beyond the Free Market-Statist Debate

This paper, which examines the causes of the South Korean crisis in 1997-98 and the nature and consequences of the post-crisis restructuring process, looks critically at the neoliberal position but also at what the authors call the statist position (which celebrated and continues to defend the usefulness of industrial policy and state direction of the economy against neoliberal critics). While there are important differences between these approaches, the authors show that because both ignore the structural causes of South Korea's crisis, neither is able to explain, much less help overcome it. The paper then examines the economic, political, and social effects of the restructuring process, demonstrating how it has left the South Korean economy more dominated by foreign capital and the chaebol, and more dependent on exports and labor exploitation than before the crisis. As a result, South Korea appears headed for a new crisis. The authors conclude by highlighting ongoing worker resistance to the restructuring process and a movement-building strategy for advancing a worker/community-centered recovery and development program.     

Developing China’s Hainan into an International Tourism Destination: How Far Can This Go?

The Chinese central government has identified tourism as an important means of stimulating domestic consumption and transforming China’s economic development pattern from investment and export-driven to consumption-led. According to the government’s new plan released in 2009, development of Hainan as an International Tourism Destination has been upgraded to a national strategy. By critically discussing the western theories on the policy-making process, this paper intends to adopt the case study of Hainan to specifically analyze its state-initiated plan for regional tourism development. Hainan is the only province in China to clearly be identified by the government for the development of its tourism into a mainstay industry. It is intended to become a test zone for China’s tourism reform and innovation and take a lead in development of tourism and associated industries. The government believes that the tourism sector is a key means of boosting regional economic development and reducing regional disparities between Hainan and the prosperous eastern provinces. Nevertheless, Hainan still faces serious obstacles to its goal of becoming a top Asia Pacific holiday destination. A lack of skilled personnel, backward transport network and poor service standards in tourism and hospitality are persistent and pressing issues. The plan for developing Hainan into an international tourism destination is unlikely to become a reality in the near future.     

Labour militancy in Taiwan: Export integration vs authoritarian transition

Since the 1980s, the Korean state has witnessed significant challenges from big business (chaebol) as well as from organized labor and popular sector. Regime transition has influenced the social and political relations between the state and big business. Thus the central argument is therefore that the developmental state has gradually eroded as the power and capability of the developmental state was increasingly affected by economic liberalization and political democratization. At the same time the state and big business are increasingly connected within more institutionalized networks. The argument will be advanced that the traditional relationship between the state and big business, which was characterized as one of state domination and the subordination of big business, has been changing more radically than the statist analysts presumed.     

韩国劳资关系:从对抗走向协商

1987年之前,韩国政府直接扶植企业发展、压制工会。民主化运动爆发后,劳资矛盾出现井喷现象,形成了劳资对抗的传统。90年代韩国的政治、经济、社会环境开始期待协商型劳资关系,但是政府缺乏经验和能力、企业和工会没有彻底完成意识转变。1997年金融危机以及全球竞争的压力为韩国建立协商型劳资关系提供了契机。在工会较为信任的"进步阵营"执政的情况下,在全社会都认识到了劳资对抗、僵硬的劳资关系的负面影响后,韩国政府倡导建立了自上而下的劳资政协商机制。尽管韩国还未彻底走出劳资矛盾的泥潭,但劳资关系向协商转换的趋势已经非常明显,而且在2008年的经济危机中又有了发展。     

RETHINKING ASIAN MOBILITIES

ABSTRACT

Vietnam's economic reforms have generated much praise for the country's rapid “opening” of its markets, as if the Vietnamese nation had previously existed in a state of isolation, closed to broader global influences and exchanges. Such discourses overlook the importance of transnational circulations of people, goods, technologies, and expertise during the socialist era that were vital to Vietnam's postwar national reconstruction and continue to play a role in post-socialist economic transformation today. This article traces the socialist pathways of labor migration between Vietnam and the former Soviet Bloc (specifically, East Germany) in the 1980s, mobilities that are generally absent in studies of contemporary export labor industries. Based on multi-sited ethnographic and archival research, the author follows Vietnamese workers first to the East German factories where they labored as “contract workers,” and then through their subsequent return and reintegration into Vietnamese society after the collapse of the Soviet Union. These mobilities bespeak of an alternative history and formation of diasporic communities that are little acknowledged or addressed in literature on labor migrations, and yet are important to understanding emerging forms of stratification today in Vietnam. Moreover, an analysis of early non-capitalist experiences with overseas labor regimes in the 1980s provides insights into contemporary Vietnamese governance practices that promote—rather uncritically, similar to other “emerging countries” —export labor as a nation-building strategy to reduce endemic poverty and develop a late socialist country.