Labour unions and inequality: A comparative study of Brazil and South Korea

This research tries to answer how the influence of labour unions can have a positive or negative effect on inequality during and after the neoliberal era. Neoliberalism is a broad concept referring to an economic paradigm that rose in the 1980s. It is built upon classical liberal thoughts on self-regulating markets. The best way to conceptualize it is to split neoliberalism into three intertwined categories: As an ideology, a mode of governance and as a policy package. It can be seen as an ideology, because decision-makers and economists see neoliberalism as the only way to achieve economic growth. The second category refers to certain modes of governance. Neoliberal modes of governance include the transformation of bureaucratic mentalities to entrepreneurial mentalities. The last category, neoliberalism embodies itself as a set of public policies in deregulation of the economy, liberalization of trade and industry and privatization of state-owned companies (Steger & Roy 2010: 11-14...Show moreThis research tries to answer how the influence of labour unions can have a positive or negative effect on inequality during and after the neoliberal era. Neoliberalism is a broad concept referring to an economic paradigm that rose in the 1980s. It is built upon classical liberal thoughts on self-regulating markets. The best way to conceptualize it is to split neoliberalism into three intertwined categories: As an ideology, a mode of governance and as a policy package. It can be seen as an ideology, because decision-makers and economists see neoliberalism as the only way to achieve economic growth. The second category refers to certain modes of governance. Neoliberal modes of governance include the transformation of bureaucratic mentalities to entrepreneurial mentalities. The last category, neoliberalism embodies itself as a set of public policies in deregulation of the economy, liberalization of trade and industry and privatization of state-owned companies (Steger & Roy 2010: 11-14). Neoliberalism had positive effects such as economic growth. However, a striking effect is that it increased the gap between the rich and the poor. This was possible because neoliberal organisations possessed extensive resources, they had alliances with key elites, and had strong personal networks outside the government (Andrain 2014: 23). Consequently due to privatization the state provided less welfare and safety nets. Labour unions are one of the best social groups to defend the rights of the labourers and to advocate a more equal society. As Mcguire (1999) shows in his research it appears that great influence of labour unions have a negative effect on equality. In this research a comparative study will be made of Brazil and South Korea regarding the role of labour unions in the reduction of inequality.Show less

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Labour unions and inequality: A comparative study of Brazil and South Korea