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Legal origin, ideology, coalition formation, or crisis? The emergence of labor law in a civil law country, Spain 1880–1936

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 52; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0023656x.2010.528993

1469-9702

Jordi Domènech,

International Labor and Employment Law

Abstract What drives institutional change? This paper analyses the roles of legal tradition, ideology, changes in relative prices, interest groups, and coalition formation by looking in detail at the passing of labor law in Spain from 1880 to 1936. In spite of being a civil law country, I show how political elites were reluctant to intervene in the labor market until 1919. Factors stressed by classic political economy held sway with weak and small coalitions for reform being unable to pass and implement new labor market regulations. The influence of the international debate about the causes of industrial conflict and its remedies – both from social Catholicism and from reformist and legal thought in more industrialized countries – shaped nonetheless the domestic debate and increased the appeal of labor market regulation. Labor law made big leaps in critical junctures like periods of poorly managed colonial wars (Cuba, Morocco) or in the late 1910s with the explosion of social conflict. Especially, the crisis of 1918–20 increased the decision-making powers of governments with weak parliamentary support, bringing about the definitive consolidation of labor law in Spain. Acknowledgements Funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under grant SEJ2009-13331/ECON is gratefully acknowledged. I thank the referees and the Editor-in-Chief of Labor History for suggesting ways of improving the article. Without implicating them in any of the shortcomings of this article, I also want to thank audiences at Carlos III (Madrid) and at the Fifteenth World Economic History Congress' session 'International orders of labour in the 19th and 20th centuries' (especially Philippe Minard) celebrated in Utrecht (the Netherlands) in August 2009. Notes Notes 1. Botero et al., 'Regulation', 1339. 2. Rajan and Zingales, 'Great Reversals'. 3. Botero et al., 'Regulation', 1362–3. 4. Huberman and Lewchuck, 'European Economic Integration', 21. 5. Martín Valverde, 'Formación', XLV. 6. Domenech, 'Institutional Change'. 7. McIvor, 'Spanish Labor Policy'; Gómez Navarro, El régimen de Primo de Rivera, chap. X; De la Calle, 'Sobre los orígenes', 145–9. 8. Preston, Coming of the Spanish Civil War, 6–10. 9. Gómez Navarro, El régimen de Primo de Rivera, 327. 10. On the Republic see Linz, 'A Century of Politics', 382–7. 11. Huberman and Lewchuk, 'European Economic Integration'. 12. Tan, 'Ideology, Interest Groups', 177. 13. Ibid., 176. Denzau and North, 'Shared Mental Models'. 14. Hayek, Constitution of Liberty, e.g. chaps 13 and 16. 15. Atiyah, Rise and Fall of Freedom, p. 586. 16. Deakin, 'Legal Origin', 35. 17. A very detailed analysis for factors driving and limiting convergence in policy making in the case of Latin America is given in Hirschman, Journeys Toward Progress. 18. Huberman and Meissner, 'Riding the Wave', 1. 19. On social conflict at the end of the First World War see Maier, Recasting Bourgeois Europe, especially chap. 1. 20. Prados de la Escosura, De imperio a nación, 237. 21. Atiyah, Rise and Fall of Freedom, 586–7. 22. Howell, Trade Unions, 68; Fulcher, Labour movements, 102. 23. Crouch, Industrial Relations, 85. 24. Moore, Injustice, 158–9. 25. De la Calle, 'Sobre los orígenes', 127–50; De la Calle, Comisión de Reformas Sociales; a definitively more plural view is offered in Gil Cremades, El reformismo español; Guillén, 'The Emergence'; Montero García, 'La polémica sobre el intervencionismo', Part I. On the 'accidental' but pervasive influence of K.C.F. Krause, an obscure disciple of Fichte and Schelling, on Spanish social thought see Carr, Spain, 303–4. 26. The classic approach to Azcárate is his son Pablo's account: Azcárate, Gumersindo de Azcárate. 27. Díaz, Filosofía social del krausismo español, 159. 28. Constancio Bernaldo de Quirós embraced a more empirical direction, generally using historical and sociological evidence, becoming in the process one of the pioneers of criminology in Spain. 29. 'Socialist' was used in the debate as 'interventionist', but this is quite common in other countries. Definition of 'State socialism' in Zancada, El obrero español, 236; Buylla, Economía, 53–154. See as well, Montero García, El primer catolicismo social, 78; Montero García, 'La polémica sobre el intervencionismo', Part I. 30. An example of Catalan conservative–reformist thought is Duran y Bas, Estudios morales, with a foreword by Federico Rahola, who had a leading role in the creation of popular savings banks and the Instituto Nacional de Previsión, and was president of the Barcelona Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation. In 1898, the president of this institution gave the inaugural lecture adopting a reformist view: Soldevila y Boixader, Consideraciones histórico-filosóficas. On Rahola's projects see Rusiñol, Bases para la creación. 31. Fernández Jiménez, El problema obrero, 2. 32. Gascón y Marín, Los sindicatos, vol. I, 49. 33. Quoted in ibid., 132. 34. Melquíades Álvarez, Diario de Sesiones del Congreso de los Diputados (henceforth DSC), 10 March 1902, no. 139, 4048. 35. Examples of this argument are José Canalejas' foreword in Buylla, Posada and Morote, El Instituto del Trabajo, p. XVII; Gascón Marín, Los sindicatos, vol. I, 26; Fernández Jiménez, El problema obrero, 131; Zancada, El obrero español, 225; Sanz Escartín, El individuo, 243; Buylla and Alegre, La protección del obrero, 105, 115; Roig y Bergadà, DSC, 6 March 1902, no. 136, 3949; Eduardo Dato, DSC, 28 February 1902, no. 131, 3809–10, quoting Fernández Villaverde's speech to the Madrid Academy of Jurisprudence in the 1901 session. 36. Canalejas' foreword in Buylla, Posada, and Morote, El Instituto del Trabajo, CXL. 37. Gumersindo de Azcárate, DSC, 19 October 1910, no. 45, 1227. 38. Sanz Escartín, El individuo, 28. 39. Ibid., 237. 40. A slightly more conservative view was put forward in Azcárate, 'Gumersindo de "Estudios sobre los deberes de la riqueza"' (speech delivered in November 1892) (Barcelona, 1904); quote from Fernández Jiménez, El problema obrero, 111. 41. Canalejas' foreword in Buylla, Posada, and Morote, El Instituto del Trabajo, XXIX. 42. For instance, Sanz Escartín, El individuo, 351. 43. Maura Gamazo, Jurados mixtos, 217. 44. Zancada, El obrero español, 19–20. In the case of Australia and New Zeland, reformers cited Métin's Le socialisme sans doctrines. 45. Roig y Bergadà, DSC, 6 March 1902, no. 136, 3950. 46. Quoted in Fernández Jiménez, El problema obrero, 365. 47. Maura Gamazo, Jurados mixtos, 212. 48. Canalejas' foreword in Buylla, Posada, and Morote, El Instituto del Trabajo, XLIII. 49. Posada, Tratado de derecho, 237; Gallart Folch, Derecho español del trabajo, 18–20; Palomeque, Derecho del trabajo e ideología. 50. Luis Canalejas (member of the Parliamentary Commission on the Instituto de Trabajo), DSC, 5 May 1902, no. 27, 677. 51. Azcárate, El régimen parlamentario, 189. As well, excerpts from his 1893 conference, 'El problema social y las leyes obreras', in Azcárate, Gumersindo de Azcárate, 82–3. 52. Canalejas' foreword in Buylla, Posada, and Morote, El Instituto de Trabajo, CXVI. 53. Ibid., CXVII. This became the IRS, Bases para un proyecto de ley acerca del contrato de trabajo, presentadas al Instituto de Reformas de Sociales made public in 1904. Palomeque, 'La intervención normativa del Estado', 122. 54. Fernández Jiménez, El problema obrero, 234. 55. Ibid., 307; similar arguments in Revenga, La jornada de ocho horas. 56. Maura Gamazo, Jurados mixtos, 14. 57. Canalejas' foreword in Buylla, Posada, and Morote, El Instituto del Trabajo, CXVII. 58. Barnosell, Orígens del sindicalisme català, 169–86. 59. Hennessy, The Federal Republic in Spain, 200–1. The 'social' ideas of Pi y Margall in Molas, Ideario de Pi y Margall, 68–75. 60. The 1878 electoral law established a system of election based mainly on single-member districts and about 20 multi-member districts in the big cities. A restrictive electoral system assured that Conservatives and Liberals remained the two dominant parties and reduced pluralism in Parliament. Universal male suffrage was granted in 1890. 61. Classic references are Tusell, Oligarquía y caciquismo, and Varela Ortega, Amigos políticos. 62. By this I mean 'the action' putting the process of legislating in motion. For instance, Aragón, 'La iniciativa legislativa', 75–98. 63. Palacio Morena, La institucionalización, 25. See also Castillo, 'El reformismo en la Restauración', 21–78; Castillo, 'Introducción'; De la Calle, Comisión de Reformas Sociales; Elorza and Iglesias, Burgueses y proletarios. 64. Quoted in Buylla, Posada, and Morote, El Instituto del Trabajo, 183. 65. The petitions for funds from the members of the Comisión to the Minister of Interior in Palacio Morena, La institucionalización, 42–4. 66. Zancada, El obrero español, 215. The project was ordered through a Royal decree in 1883 and finalised in 1884. 67. Buylla, Economía, 153. As well in Botella, El socialismo, 346–7. Another definition ('legal socialism') is given in Pereira, 'Socialismo jurídico', 9–13. 68. Buylla, Economía, 153–4. 69. Montero García, El primer catolicismo social, 82–3 70. Montero García, 'La polémica sobre el intervencionismo. 2a parte', 59–65. 71. Zancada, El obrero español, 215. 72. Maurice and Serrano, Joaquín Costa, 27–30. Examples of regenerationist literature are: Mallada, Los males de la patria; Macías Picavea, El problema nacional. 73. This went hand in hand with developments in political economy, Pan-Montojo, 'El atraso económico y la regeneración', 261–335. 74. Quote is from Joaquín Costa in Maurice and Serrano, Joaquín Costa, 84. 75. Ibid., 31. 76. Cabrera, 'El conservadurismo maurista en la Restauración'. 77. Maurice and Serrano, Joaquín Costa, 30. 78. Tusell, Antonio Maura, 49–50. 79. Gascón Marín, Los sindicatos, vol. 1, 100. 80. Eduardo Dato, DSC, 28 February 1902, no. 131, 3809. 81. Conde Romanones, DSC, 17 January 1900, no. 107, 3568. 82. Zancada, El obrero español, 218. A recent study of the causes and effects of this law is Silvestre, 'Workplace Accidents'. 83. Borrás Llop, 'Actitudes patronales', 636–7. 84. DSC, 22 January 1900, no. 111, appendix 8. 85. Article 556 penalising combinations of workers aimed at altering the 'normal' levels of wages and hours had not been used since 1882 (Pablo Iglesias, DSC, 19 October 1910, no. 45, 1226), and as such was recognised by the Supreme Court in the early twentieth century. Probably, the reason for this were the difficulties in gathering evidence to judge strikers rather than the judiciary's progressivism. 86. Canalejas' foreword in Buylla, Posada, and Morote, El Instituto del Trabajo, CLVI. 87. De la Cierva y Peñafiel, Notas de mi vida, 119. 88. Posada, 'Obstruccionismo'. 89. Martorell Linares, Santo temor, 36. 90. There is a vast literature on this issue: Rey Reguillo, 'La polémica sobre el control obrero'; Instituto de Reformas Sociales, Contestación; Instituto de Reformas Sociales, Información relativa; Marichalar y Monreal, El sindicatorio obligatorio; Instituto de Reformas Sociales, La reglamentación colectiva; Instituto de Reformas Sociales, Legislación sobre asociaciones; Instituto de Reformas Sociales, El contrato de trabajo. 91. Gómez Navarro, El régimen de Primo de Rivera, chap. X; De la Calle, 'Sobre los orígenes', 145–9; McIvor, 'Spanish Labor Policy'. 92. Preston, Coming of the Spanish Civil War, 6–10. 93. Gómez Navarro, El régimen de Primo de Rivera, 327. 94. On the Republic see Linz, 'A Century of Politics'. 95. González Rothvoss, Anuario español. 96. Balcells, Crisis económica, 187. 97. Cabrera, La patronal, 202–15; Balcells, Crisis económica, 215, fn 29, gives a very good example of employers' complaints by reproducing a letter of the Federation of Catalan employers, led by the Fomento de Trabajo Nacional, published in La Vanguardia on 20 July 1933.