Center-right parties and "pro-outsiders" job protection labour market reforms: A configurational study

• Autor(a) principal: Conceição, Francisco
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/27209
• topic: Dualization; Fixed-term contracts; Mercado de trabalho -- Labour market; Outsiders; Reforms; Trabalho temporário -- Temporary job; Dualização; Contratos a termo; Reformas

Labour legislation and the inherent dualization has been a relevant topic of study for researchers in Comparative Political Economy. The way governments change labour legislation according to changes in economic and social contexts of countries gave rise to the need to deepen the topic in order to clarify the extent in which these changes occur. This work aims to find similarities between different European countries that, while being governed by center-right parties, have increased the level of labour market regulation so that a small share of workers that usually tends to be forgotten (and thus usually finds itself in a weaker position) can enjoy a greater degree of labour stability: the outsiders. Through the detailed evaluation of some indicators that we considered essential to our study, we applied four conditions mentioned by Marques and Fonseca (2022) as relevant in the study of labour reforms in Portugal and Spain conducted by center-left governments: the existence of proportional electoral systems; weak governments; exponential growth in the number of outsiders; and country’s macroeconomic context. We conclude that center-right governments are more likely to regulate the labour market in favour of outsiders when a coalition between parties was needed for a government formation, as well as during periods of economic stagnation.