Deregulation and Flexibilisation

Abstract

Deregulation and flexibilisation policies followed the deunionisation and suppression of collective bargaining rights in the transition from the Keynesian to the monetarist economic policy in Greece and Turkey. In parallel with the limited extent of policies for reducing the organisational capacity of trade unions and preventing collective bargaining in Greece, deregulation and flexibilisation policies were pursued on a far more limited scale in comparison to Turkey, and working class organisations resisted the process at trade union and political party levels. Whereas the organised resistance of the working class compelled the capital to introduce institutional-legal changes towards deregulation and flexibilisation in Greece, the constraints imposed on the working class enabled the controlling of the labour market without resorting to institutional-legal changes in Turkey. Hence, an overall assessment of the post-1980 period points to an ‘optional flexibilisation’ of the labour market in Turkey (Köse and Æncü, 2000: p. 84).