Opposing Trends of Labor Protests in Cambodia and China. Do High-Capacity Authoritarian Regimes Create More Space for Institutional Arrangements?

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Development Politics, grade: 1,0 (A+), The University of Hong Kong, language: English, abstract: With the rapid expansion of capitalism and market economies around the world, multinationals based on the principles of capitalism are seeking profit by moving capital to low-wage countries, leading to the so-called ¿race to the bottom¿ and, in some cases, to the occurrence of ¿sweatshop labor¿. Manufacturing workers in China and Cambodia, like many other workers around the world, suffer from the global race to the bottom and associated low wages and adverse working conditions, which have in both countries led to the emergence of labor conflicts and protests. Conventional wisdom suggests that Chinäs authoritarian regime is expected to have more difficulty committing to the institutionalization of labor interests, as this commitment bears the danger of social empowerment, in turn weakening state power. Cambodia, on the other hand, as a more open, formally democratic regime, would be assumed to provide more spaces for the institutionalization of labor interests. However, recent trends show the surprising opposite. While the Chinese government has become more responsive to workers¿ demands, in Cambodia, labor rights and conditions seem to deteriorate, reaching their peak with deadly clashes between the state and workers. The first section serves to provide a brief theoretical background on labor movements, institutional arrangements, and regime transition. Then, I introduce Cambodiäs and Chinäs economic and political situations as well as the development of labor protests and government responses. This is followed by an analysis of the prevailing distinctive features of the two development patterns, which will help to answer the question of why institutional arrangements appear to be more favorable under Chinäs authoritarian rule.