Easing the tension between the state and the market? Developing social protection and labour law during Latin American industrialization

Abstract

The onset of industrialization across Latin America put the social question squarely on the agenda of policy-makers. Although Latin American countries in many respects did not meet the conditions of socio-economic and political development that proved to be the prerequisite for welfare state creation in Western Europe, the early Latin American industrializers decided to broadly follow the style and function of the European model introducing social rights and a rather truncated notion of citizenship. Nevertheless, those early policy decisions have proved to lastingly impact social, economic and political conditions across the region with central aspects of social protection and labour law having limited reach due to deficiencies in state capacity, the rule of law and high levels of labour informality. Discourses on the development of citizenship, social protection and labour law are inextricably linked to the complex processes that make up industrialization entailing thorough economic and political transformations and struggles within society. The resultant so-called social question has ever since the inception of industrialization given rise to intense debates on social inclusion, welfare state creation and the design thereof. This paper focuses on state-society relations during the early stages of industrialization in Latin America until the 1980s, predominantly analysing the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia.