 María Victoria Murillo, Partisanship amidst Convergence: The Politics of Labor Reforms in Latin America During the 1980s macroeconomic crises and globalization pressures brought Latin American governments, both conservative and populist, to implement market-oriented reforms. Despite policy convergence, sectoral policies, which concentrate their effects on core supporters but are not salient for the median voter, could still be used to demonstrate partisan policymaking. Labor-linked parties used labor market regulation to keep labor supporters when facing political uncertainty despite regional convergence toward labor market deregulation. Incumbent labor-linked parties used labor reforms to keep labor allies because their effects were concentrated on formal workers who were already organized and had previous partisan alliances but did not change the preferences of the median voter. |