IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v69y2016i5p1056-1080.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reinforcing the State

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew Amengual
  • Laura Chirot

Abstract

Research on global programs to regulate labor standards has emphasized interactions between transnational and state regulatory institutions. If transnational initiatives can make state institutions more relevant, they have the potential to reinforce, rather than displace, state labor regulation. Through a study of the Indonesia-based program of a leading initiative to improve working conditions in the garment industry, Better Work, this article identifies the conditions under which transnational regulations reinforce domestic ones. Drawing on two case studies comparing regulations governing fixed-term contracts and minimum wage renegotiations in four Indonesian districts, the authors find that reinforcement is likely when two conditions jointly occur: unions mobilize to activate state institutions, and transnational regulators have support to resolve ambiguities in formal rules in ways that require firms to engage with constraining institutions. The authors further test the findings through a quantitative analysis of factory participation in state-supervised wage renegotiations. The findings reveal opportunities and constraints to designing global programs that can both improve factory-level standards and support the functioning of state labor market institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew Amengual & Laura Chirot, 2016. "Reinforcing the State," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 69(5), pages 1056-1080, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:69:y:2016:i:5:p:1056-1080
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ilr.sagepub.com/content/69/5/1056.abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michele Ford & Michael Gillan & Kristy Ward, 2023. "Beyond the brands: COVID‐19, supply chain governance, and the state–labor nexus," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 172-188, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:69:y:2016:i:5:p:1056-1080. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.