FU Berlin Digitale Dissertation
Miriam Abu Sharkh : History and Results of Labor Standard Initiatives An Event History and Panel Analysis of the Ratification Patterns, and Effects, of the International Labor Organization¿s first Child Labor Convention Geschichte und Ergebnisse von Arbeitsnorminitiativen
|Abstract| |Table of Contents| |More Information|

Abstract Much opposition to globalization rests on the assumption that globalization will lead to a "race to the bottom" concerning human rights. With the establishment of the World Trade Organization a heated debate developed about the relative merits of international organizations such as the International Labour Organization regarding the promotion of social human rights. Should the World Trade Organization use coercive measures like a social dumping clause to ascertain that social human rights are upheld? Or does the strategy of the International Labor Organization suffice? This dissertation examines the impact the International Labour Organization has had concerning pressuring countries to ratify one of its core social human rights conventions (the Minimum Age Convention C138 prohibiting child labor) and the effect that such ratification attained with respect to other influential factors. Child labor is the only social human right that would cause production costs to rise significantly and thereby put developing countries with labor intense economies that implement this standard single-handedly at a comparative disadvantage. Using an event history analysis (1960-1995), I find that the ratification of the Minimum Age Convention of the International Labor Organization is significantly more likely if the country has many international organizational links to the world society. This effect is independent of income level. Furthermore, I show that there is a very weak coupling between formal commitment to the convention and structural change in the labor market. The ratification of C138 has no net effect on child labor rates. Far greater an effect is yielded through international associations particularly international Non-Governmental-Organizations. The denser the organizational connections linking a country to the wider world society, the faster child labor drops. In this dissertation, I thereby aim to test the prediction of the World Society Theory that there are world wide diffusion processes and channels of standard models suggesting what a legitimate nation is responsible for and how it should handle this responsibility. Furthermore, this dissertation addresses the social movement discussion by showing that non-state actors and associations yield better results than traditional political channels of influence.

Table of Contents Download the whole PhDthesis as a zip-tar file or as zip-File For download in PDF format click the chapter title Title and Contents Introduction 7 Outline 10 Part 1 12 1. History and current relevance of protecting core labor standards 12 2. Fundamental labor and social standards: a definition 14 3. Initiatives and strategies to promote labor standards 16 4. Which labor standards have to be implemented regardless of intra-national factors? 44 5. Recent trends in core labor standard dimensions 49 Part II 55 1. Why focus on child labor? 55 2. Hypothesis 62 3. Operationalization, data, and methods 74 4. Discussion 79 5. Conclusion 94 Part III 95 1. Testing different linkages 95 2. Social movement literature review 102 3. Definitions 125 4. Operationalizing a social movement 129 5. Hypothesis: the success of the unruly 136 6. Sample and data analysis 139 7. Results and discussion: David against Goliath 140 8. Conclusion: the radical flank effect 143 Overall conclusion and research questions 144 Literature 147 Appendix 183

More Information:
Online available:	http://www.diss.fu-berlin.de/2002/227/indexe.html
Language of PhDThesis:	english
Keywords:	child labor, labor standards, social clause, international treaties, ILO, Event History Analysis
DNB-Sachgruppe:	14 Soziologie, Gesellschaft
Date of disputation:	06-Mar-2002
PhDThesis from:	Fachbereich Politik- u. Sozialwissenschaft, Freie Universität Berlin
First Referee:	Prof. Dr. Georg Elwert
Second Referee:	Prof. Dr. John Meyer
Third Referee:	Prof. Dr. Horst Skarabis, Prof. Dr. Douglas McAdam
Contact (Author):	mirabus@hotmail.com
Contact (Advisor):	elwert@zedat.fu-berlin
Date created:	08-Oct-2002
Date available:	14-Nov-2002

 

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