Power resources, institutional legacy and labour standards transformation: Lessons from two developing countries
本文比较黎巴嫩和突尼斯在新自由主义时期的劳工改革，发现工会的制度渠道和合法性等权力资源决定了改革成败，突尼斯工会成功换取灵活性下的就业保障，而黎巴嫩工会因缺乏合法性导致改革失败。
This article assesses the political dynamics behind labour standards reform attempts and their divergent outcomes in Lebanon and Tunisia during the neoliberal era according to a success/failure and flexibility/security configuration. It emphasises the interconnection of three power resources. Institutional legacies mattered for organised labour’s influence on these reforms. Having already had access to formal channels of decision-making since the 1970s, Tunisian labour effectively used these channels during the 1990s reforms. Such channels were not historically well-developed for Lebanese labour and were critical in the reform failure. Furthermore, thanks to its ideational power (i.e. legitimacy), Tunisian organised labour was part of the political coalition of reform. Consequently, Tunisian labour was successful in gaining some job security privileges in exchange for flexibility. Conversely, Lebanese organised labour lacked such legitimacy, which contributed to their exclusion from the political coalition. Instead, employers used their informal channels (e.g. networks) with the political coalition’s elites to halt job security reform.