Authoritarian innovations in labor governance: The case of Cambodia

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ford, Michele; Gillan, Michael; Ward, Kristy
• 署名单位: University of Sydney; University of Sydney; University of Western Australia
• 刊物名称: GOVERNANCE-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POLICY ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0952-1895
• DOI: 10.1111/gove.12559
• 发表日期: 2021
• 关键词: employment relations; state; RIGHTS; POLITICS

摘要

Authoritarian states face a fundamental tension in managing labor conflict. Too much repression can be read as a violation of workers' human rights, but too little undermines their structures of control. In this article, we shift focus from the overt repression of workers and unions to consider how states manage labor dissent through governance reform. Using Cambodia as our case, we examine the government's use of a series of authoritarian innovations to reassert control over labor governance mechanisms once dominated by international actors. Through an analysis of the shifting terrain of reform in the areas of labor legislation, minimum wage-setting, and disputes resolution, we show how institutional pacification has contained labor in ways that have served to defend state legitimacy and protect accumulation. We conclude by discussing the implications of these novel tactics-which signal the state is neither static nor predictable-for our understanding of labor governance under authoritarianism.