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Tripartism and Economic Reforms in Slovenia and Poland

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Blunting Neoliberalism

Part of the book series: The International Labour Organization

Abstract

The establishment of peak-level tripartism has accompanied market transformations in virtually all countries in Central and Eastern Europe. With the main aim of preserving social peace while enhancing economic progress, these tripartite structures were to facilitate negotiation and deliberation between the government and organized labour and business over a wide range of reforms and socio-economic policies. While these institutions display a striking similarity in terms of their formal functions and responsibilities, their actual functioning and the impact on economic reforms have varied greatly. This chapter analyses the varied impact of tripartism on economic reforms and its consequences for socio-economic outcomes in Slovenia and Poland — these two countries can be characterized as cases of strong and weak tripartism respectively.

I am grateful to Lydia Fraile and Lucio Baccaro for detailed comments on an earlier version of this chapter. I would also like to thank Dušan Kidrič, Alenka Kajzer and Tomaž Kraigher from the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis in Ljubljana and Metka štoka-Debevec and Katja Rihar-Bauk from the Slovenian Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs for providing hard-to-find information and data. In addition to the interviews cited here, this chapter has been informed by the interview dataset of the project on ‘Distributive Politics, Learning and Reform: National Social Pacts’, funded by the European Union under the Sixth Framework Programme and part of the Integrated Project on ‘New Modes of Governance’.

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Authors
  1. Sabina Avdagic
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Institute for Labour Studies of the ILO, Switzerland

    Lydia Fraile (research associate) (research associate)

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© 2010 International Labour Organization

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Avdagic, S. (2010). Tripartism and Economic Reforms in Slovenia and Poland. In: Fraile, L. (eds) Blunting Neoliberalism. The International Labour Organization. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230274327_2

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