Foreign Direct Investment, Regime Type, and Labor Protest in Developing Countries

We explore the relationship between FDI, regime type, and strikes in low- and middle-income countries. We argue that FDI produces social tensions and opportunities for protest that can result in higher levels of industrial conflict. However, the effect of FDI is moderated by regime type. While democ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of political science 2011-07, Vol.55 (3), p.665-677
Main Authors: Robertson, Graeme B., Teitelbaum, Emmanuel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism (Political Ideology)
Competition
Conflict
Datasets
Democracy
Demonstrations & protests
Developing Countries
Economic competition
Employee rights
Foreign direct investment
Foreign direct investments
Foreign Investment
Freedom
Freedom of association
Income distribution
Labor protests
Labor Relations
Labor strikes
Labor unions
Labour disputes
Labour relations
LDCs
Low income groups
Political science
Strikes
Workers
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Summary:We explore the relationship between FDI, regime type, and strikes in low- and middle-income countries. We argue that FDI produces social tensions and opportunities for protest that can result in higher levels of industrial conflict. However, the effect of FDI is moderated by regime type. While democracies tend to have higher levels of protest overall, they are better able than authoritarian regimes to cope with the strains arising from FDI. We cite two reasons. First, political competition forces regimes to incorporate workers, which shifts conflict from industrial relations to the political arena. Second, democracies provide workers with freedom of association rights, which facilitate institutionalized grievance resolution. We test the argument using a new dataset of labor protest in low- and middle-income countries for the period 1980—2005.
ISSN:0092-5853
1540-5907
DOI:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00510.x