Editorial Introduction - Labor Markets, Institutions, and the Political Economy of Power: Towards a Reconceptualization of the Policy Framework

Abstract

The drive for labor market flexibility has become something of an intellectual and political crusade in the past several decades. As part of the conventional ‘best practice’ view of economic policy, labor market flexibility can be considered to be at the heart of what Thomas Friedman calls the Golden Straitjacket into which all countries need to fit themselves in order to be successful.