Somewhat more than path dependence: The Spanish employers’ peak organisation and social dialogue in light of the crisis of the industrial relations system

The literature has shown that, much the same as other employers in southern Europe, the Spanish employers’ peak association, the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations (CEOE), did not take advantage of the radical legislative deregulation of 2010–2012 and, to the contrary, helped perpetuate the traditional institutions that order the industrial relations system. This article contributes to a better understanding of the underlying reasons that guided the CEOE’s behaviour, and also incorporates the Spanish case into the literature on the adaptation of employers’ organisations – and how the institutions and path dependence have an influence – in the face of the widespread trends of economic deregulation. Finally, this article provides up-to-date, solid and reliable data on membership of employers’ associations in Spain, the lack of which is one of the shortcomings of the literature.

Milestones in the Evolution of the Administrative State

The modern administrative state, as measured by the number of agencies, their budgets and staffing, and the number of regulations they issue, has grown significantly over the last hundred years. This essay reviews the origins of the administrative state and identifies four milestone efforts to hold it accountable to the American people: passage of the Administrative Procedure Act in 1946, the economic deregulation of the 1970s and 1980s, requirements for ex ante regulatory impact analysis, and the establishment of White House review. These milestones reflect bipartisan consensus on appropriate constraints on executive rulemaking, but they have not succeeded in stemming the debate over the proper role for administrative agencies and the regulations they issue. New milestones may include judicial interpretations, legislative actions, and extensions to executive oversight.

Globalization: A Very Short Introduction

Globalization: A Very Short Introduction looks at the interconnected and accelerated processes changing how we see and experience the world. Is globalization really a new phenomenon? Is increased connection between people and nations inevitable, or are we witnessing the beginning of an era of ‘deglobalization’ or ‘anti-globalization’? Updated with new developments including advancing climate change, the Trump presidency, and the Mexico–USA border, this VSI explores the history and impact of globalization. Chapters on the cultural, economic, political, and ecological dimensions of globalization investigate the impact of new technologies, economic deregulation, and mass migration on our world and consider what we might expect from the future of globalization.

“Good” and “Bad” Actors in Digital Space: The Un/Making of a Digital Citizen

There has been a firestorm of moral outrage regarding the collection and misuse of personal information by data-informed digital companies. In framing their actions we often make a distinction between “good” and “bad” actors. I investigate the hidden presupposition that informs this dichotomy, by using the figure of the citizen to reveal an underlying structural transformation in the fog of our times. I ask, what can we reverse engineer from this historical phenomenon to derive a meaning of the political project defining the making of “digital space,” which shares meaning with the supposed inherent characteristics of the age, and its relationship to the production, validation, and dissemination of information? I’ll present a case for how an atomization of affinity and failure maps and draws energy from a broader historical agenda of social, political, and economic deregulation. On this basis I ask, what are the implications for understanding the figure of the digital citizen?

Comment on Reuel Schiller: The Curious Origins of Airline Deregulation: Economic Deregulation and the American Left

Air travel is unpleasant for many reasons, particularly in the post-9/11 age. Yet, blame for the cramped accommodations, bag fees, and lack of direct flights has to be assigned in part to the deregulation of the airline industry in the late 1970s. Airline deregulation and its consequences symbolize the ways in which neoliberal ideas and practices have come to shape economic policies as well as the daily lives of ordinary Americans.

Planning, value(s) and the market: An analytic for “what comes next?”

For 30 years, planning has been attacked both rhetorically and materially in England as governments have sought to promote economic deregulation over landuse planning. Our paper examines two new moments of planning deregulation. These are the loosening of regulation around short-term letting in London and the new permitted development rights, which allow for office to residential conversion without the need for planning permission. Whilst these may be viewed as rather innocuous reforms on the surface, they directly and profoundly illustrate how planners are often trapped between their legal duty to promote public values as dictated by national planning policy and the government’s desire to deregulate. We argue that viewing these changes through a value-based approach to economy and regulation illuminates how multiple and complex local values and understandings of value shape planners’ strategies and actions and thus vary national policies in practice. In so doing, the paper demonstrates how planners have, at least, the opportunity to develop a critical voice and to advocate for policy interpretations that can help to create better outcomes for local communities.