Jordi Domenech

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Departament of Economic History and Institutions, Faculty Member

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Phone: (+34) 91 624 98 09
Address: Departamento de Historia Económica e Instituciones
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
calle Madrid, 126
28903 GETAFE (Madrid)
Spain

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Papers by Jordi Domenech

El mercado de trabajo en el Servicio de Correos de España, 1890-1935

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Land tenure inequality, harvests, and rural conflict. Evidence from Southern Spain during the Second Republic (1931-1934)

This paper analyses rural conflict in one of the most volatile areas of interwar Europe, the lati... more This paper analyses rural conflict in one of the most volatile areas of interwar Europe, the latifundia regions of the South of Spain. The historical and economics literature argues that rural conflict was a bottom-up, spontaneous response of landless peasants to unemployment, bad harvests, land ownership inequality, changes in property rights, and the lack of enforcement of pro-worker legislation. A second generation of historical studies has focused on democratization and concomitant changes in collective bargaining and labor market institutions. Was conflict caused by structural factors like poverty, inequality or unemployment or was conflict an endogenous response to political change? This paper analyzes the pattern of conflict in in three Andalusian provinces (Córdoba, Jaén and Seville) in the early 1930s to argue that the timing and geographical distribution of conflict is consistent with a wave of mobilization linked to greater political opportunities favored by lower repression, pro-worker institutional change, and labor market intervention. Time-series and cross-sectional variation in levels of rural conflict suggest conflict was not a spontaneous response to dismal living standards and inequality. Rather, it emerged in large, fast growing towns of Andalusia and was mediated by the strategic interaction of authorities and experienced rural unions. The instances of rural conflict analyzed here suggest it is very difficult for new democratic governments in agrarian societies to stave rural conflict off with labor-friendly intervention. It is often argued that conflict precedes political and institutional change, but it is shown here that conflict can emerge abruptly as a response to those changes.

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Structural change, collective action and social unrest in 1930s Spain

The Spanish 2nd Republic (1931Republic ( -1936 witnessed one of the fastest and deepest processes... more The Spanish 2nd Republic (1931Republic ( -1936 witnessed one of the fastest and deepest processes of popular mobilization in interwar Europe, generating a decisive reactionary wave that brought the country to the Civil War (1936)(1937)(1938)(1939). We show in the paper that both contemporary comment and part of the historiography makes generalizations about the behaviour of the working classes in the period that stress idealistic, re-distributive and even religious motives to join movements of protest. In some other cases, state repression, poverty, and deteriorating living standards have been singled out as the main determinants of participation. This paper uses collective action theory to argue that key institutional changes and structural changes in labour markets were crucial to understand a significant part of the explosive popular mobilization of the period. We argue first that, before the second Republic, temporary migrants had been the main structural limitation against the stabilization of unions and collective bargaining in agricultural labour markets and in several service and industrial sectors. We then show how several industries underwent important structural changes since the late 1910s which stabilized part of the labour force and allowed for union growth and collective bargaining. In agricultural labour markets or in markets in which unskilled temporary workers could not be excluded, unions benefitted from republican legislation restricting temporary migrations and, as a consequence, rural unions saw large gains membership and participation. Historical narratives that focus on state repression or on changes in living standards to explain collective action and social conflict in Spain before the Civil War are incomplete without a consideration of the role of structural changes in labour markets from 1914 to 1931.

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Rural labour markets and rural conflict in Spain before the Civil War

This paper looks at the causes of the explosion of rural conflict in 1930s Spain. Rather than emp... more This paper looks at the causes of the explosion of rural conflict in 1930s Spain. Rather than emphasising the effects of poor harvests and rural unemployment or of employers' reaction to Republican legislation, this paper explores the role of government intervention in causing the sharp rise in unionization and conflict in the period by looking at the effects of legislation on rural labour markets, especially in the dry-farming areas of Spain (Castile and Andalucía). In particular I look at the effects of the creation of labour exchanges and the restrictions to temporary migrations on conflict and collective bargaining. Quantative evidence on harvest to winter ratios and on local strikes and union implementation are provided to back up my claims.

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