From Lambs to Lions. The Changing Role of Bulgarian and Romanian Labor Unions in the Course of Democratic Transition

Abstract

The role of labor unions has increasingly been the focus of scholarly analyses in recent years as the world has experienced the most encompassing wave of democratization. In his seminal article proposing a typology of four different modes of labor union behavior depending on their treatment by the former authoritarian regimes, J. Samuel Valenzuela (1989) observed that labor unions will best contribute to a successful consolidation of the new democracies if they do not press excessively for the satisfaction of narrow interests. Conversely, if their demands are too harshly denied by the new democratic elites, unions may be disloyal to new governments and thus undermine the transition process (Valenzuela 1989, 451). In a similar fashion, Adam Przeworski argued that the containment of excessive wage increase demands by unions is critical for the success of economic transition reforms (1991, 181). In her comprehensive comparative analysis of labor union and business roles in democratic transitions in Latin America and Eastern Europe, Joan M. Nelson concluded that in both economic and political reforms within the transition processes, unions can and do play crucially supportive roles but can likewise cause slowdowns, and stalemates (1994).