Bending the Bars of the Iron Cage: Bureaucratization and Informalization in Capitalism and Socialism

Abstract In 1973 a coup d'état interrupted the institutional continuity of Uruguay. As perceived by many industrialists, the real threat at that juncture was not the urban guerrillas, the tupamaros, but the union movement. For these businessmen the threat posed by the unions was labor indiscipline. For the military it was the Marxist-Leninist ideology that predominated in the union leadership, an ideology that the military were doing their best to suppress. The dictatorship, in fact, caused the union movement to disappear temporarily. It re-emerged during the transition as a result of negotiations between the armed forces and the political opposition. The new union movement, created in 1983, was first a substitute political actor and later a corporate actor. After the restoration of democracy the union leadership elite, mostly communist, gradually adopted a strategy of accommodation, of "negative integration." It maintained a rhetoric of radical change but practiced negotiation to promote the stability of the political regime, thus providing itself with a space in which to act. Resumen En 1973 un golpe de estado interrumpió la continuidad institucional del Uruguay. Para muchos de los empresarios industriales la amenaza real, en el momento, no eran los guerrilleros urbanos, los tupamaros, sino el movimiento sindical. La indisciplina laboral era "su" amenaza. Para los militares lo era la ideología que predominaba en la dirigencia sindical: el marxismo-leninismo, ideología a la que trataron de suprimir. La dictadura, de hecho, provocó la desaparición del movimiento sindical. Su resurgimiento fue el producto de las negociaciones de salida entre las Fuerzas Armadas y la oposición política. El nuevo movimiento sindical creado en 1983 fue, primero, un actor político sustituto y luego un actor corporativo. A partir de la restauración de la democracia la élite dirigente sindical, mayoritariamente comunista, poco a poco, adoptó una estrategia de acomodación, de "integración negativa". Mantuvo una retórica de cambio radical, pero practicó la negociación en busca de la estabilidad del régimen político que le permite un espacio para actuar.