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Goodbye to Competitive Corporatism in Spain? Social Pacting And doi:10.5477/cis/reis.148.79 Goodbye to Competitive Corporatism in Spain? Social Pacting and Conflict in the Economic Crisis ¿Adiós al corporatismo competitivo en España? Pactos sociales y conflicto en la crisis económica Sergio González Begega and David Luque Balbona Key words Abstract Employers The economic crisis has placed the corporatist framework in Spain Associations under significant strain. Labour unrest has also intensified, shifting to • Labor Disputes the political arena and threatening to overwhelm existing institutional • Corporatism channels. This article evaluates the tendencies toward consensus and • Economic Crisis conflict in democratic Spain, examining the theoretical debate on the • Collective Bargaining competitive reorientation of national models of corporatism in Southern • Labor Policy Europe within the context of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). • Unions In addition, it examines the symptoms of erosion in the Spanish corporatist experience within a scenario of economic crisis. The article emphasizes the underlying continuity in the political exchange between government and social partners and concludes that, despite the deterioration of social dialogue, the mechanisms for the production of social pacts in Spain have not completely fractured, and there are possibilities for their reactivation. Palabras clave Resumen Asociaciones de La crisis económica ha erosionado el marco corporatista para la empresarios producción de políticas socioeconómicas, laborales y de bienestar en • Conflictos laborales España. La conflictividad socio-laboral también se ha visto • Corporatismo intensificada, registrando un desplazamiento hacia el ámbito político y • Crisis económica amenazando con desbordar sus mecanismos de encauzado • Negociación colectiva institucional. El artículo evalúa las tendencias de consenso y conflicto • Política laboral en la España democrática, revisando el debate teórico sobre la • Sindicatos reorientación competitiva de los modelos nacionales de corporatismo en el sur de Europa en el contexto de la Unión Económica y Monetaria (UEM). Asimismo, examina los síntomas de desgaste de la experiencia corporatista española dentro del escenario de crisis económica. El artículo subraya la continuidad subyacente del intercambio político entre gobierno y agentes sociales y concluye que, a pesar de su deterioro, el dispositivo de producción de pactos sociales en España no ha llegado a fracturarse y dispone de posibilidades de reactivación. Citation González Begega, Sergio and Luque Balbona, David, (2014). “Goodbye to Competitive Corporatism in Spain? Social Pacting and Conflict in the Economic Crisis”. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 148: 79-102. (http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.148.79) Sergio González Begega: Universidad de Oviedo | [email protected] David Luque Balbona: Universidad de Oviedo | [email protected] Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 79-102 80 Goodbye to Competitive Corporatism in Spain? Social Pacting and Conflict in the Economic Crisis of the economic crisis (2008-2013). The wor- INTRODUCTION1 king hypothesis is the underlying continuity The existence of corporatist mechanisms of Spanish corporatism, conceived as a pro- has been one of the identifying elements de- cess of political exchange, even in conditions termining political processes in the majority of tension, such as we find in the current pe- of Western European countries, albeit with riod of crisis. Concretely, the article will exa- different national approaches. The search for mine whether the explanatory frameworks consensus between government and social available regarding corporatist exchange are partners through the negotiation of social effective in characterizing the Spanish cor- pacts has served to channel conflict and has poratist model, or if, on the contrary, they facilitated the development of a stable fra- have lost usefulness. To do this, we will eva- mework for labour relations in Spain and luate the performance of the corporatist sys- other European countries. The creation of a tem in Spain, giving special attention to the corporatist social compact, aimed at promo- most recent stage of competitive corpora- ting long term reforms, constituted a com- tism. The current economic crisis threatens mon process in Spain and other European the coherency of the model of exchange or countries that were transitioning toward de- dialogue that has characterized the relation- mocracy in the 1970s. The experiences of ship between governments and social part- competitive corporatism undertaken two de- ners since the decade of the 1990s. The exis- cades later to arrive at an agreed upon agen- tence of ample participatory experience da for the reform of the welfare state, the la- among social partners in processes of policy formulation has not prevented the gradual bour market and the distribution of income in abandonment, beginning in 2010, of the the context of the Economic and Monetary orientation toward consensus and the inten- Union (EMU), involved the redefinition of the sification of conflict. forms of dialogue under new political and economic challenges. The reactivation of so- In this article we will first review the diffe- cial pacts in the 1990s introduced important rent concepts of neo-corporatism, from its changes in national models of corporatism. initial formulations in the decade of the 1970s At the same time, it established the basis for to the more recent critical approaches explai- a process of political exchange between go- ning the evolution in forms of political ex- vernments and social partners, which, under change between governments and social different institutional configurations, relations partners in Europe. The second section ad- between partners, and different content de- dresses the functionality, objectives and sta- ges of Spain’s experience with corporatism, pending on the country, has revealed a high understood as a system for the production of degree of consistency and continuity within social pacts and as a political process chan- the EMU. nelling labour conflicts. The third section This article examines the stability of the analyses the redefinition of Spanish corpora- Spanish corporatist model within the context tism as competitive corporatism in the 1990s, relating this transformation with the changes that affected corporatist mechanisms in 1 This article forms part of the CABISE research project other European countries within the pre-EMU (Welfare Capitalism in Southern Europe: a Comparative Analysis) corresponding to Spain’s National Plan for environment. In addition, we assess the con- R+D+i (ref. CSO2012-33976). The authors wish to ex- tinuity of the logic of political exchange bet- press their thanks for the valuable comments made re- ween governments and social partners, des- garding previous versions of this text by Ana Marta Guillén Rodríguez, Holm-Detlev Köhler and Miguel Mar- pite external changes in the institutional tínez Lucio. framework. The fourth section examines the Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 79-102 Sergio González Begega and David Luque Balbona 81 impact of the economic crisis on Spanish gories, recognized or licensed (if not created) corporatism, addressing the slowdown in the by the state and granted a deliberate repre- production of social pacts and the risk of sentational monopoly within their respective their breakdown as a consequence of the categories in exchange for observing certain increase in conflict. In the conclusion we dis- controls on their selection of leaders and arti- cuss the underlying continuity of Spanish culation of demands and supports.” corporatism in the context of the economic Beyond this definition, one of the central crisis and address the possibility of its reac- characteristics of corporatism as a system of tivation in the face of rising erosive tensions. exchange between private interests and the state is its capacity to exist in multiple forms and to evolve. As Schmitter indicates (1974: CONCEPTUAL AND INTERPRETATIVE 92) “[Corporatism is] a concrete, observable CHALLENGES: WHAT TYPE AND HOW general system of interest representation MANY CORPORATISMS which is “compatible” with several different The idea of neo-corporatism or democratic regime-types”. As a result, national corpora- corporatism refers to institutional arrange- tist experiences have acquired their own ments intended to accommodate interest traits in function of the public decision-ma- groups representing civil society in public king sphere in question or the specific num- decision-making. Beyond doubts about the ber and objectives of the participating actors, constitutional and democratic legitimacy of and they present themselves as unique mechanisms for formulating policy that pro- constructions. vide specific private actors access to the po- The political space most often associated litical arena (Habermas, 1989), neo-corpora- with the existence of corporatist practices is tism has been highly functional in channelling the socioeconomic agenda. During the se- conflict and guaranteeing social consensus, cond half of the 20th century, the design of especially under challenging political and policies related to the distribution of income, economic conditions. the labour market and welfare in the majority The term, neo-corporatism, was coined of democratic countries in Europe was sup- to differentiate the experience of the partici-
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