SOAS University of London

Graduate Student, Politics

MPhil/PhD Student

School of Oriental and African Studies

Thesis Title: Globalisation, Policy Convergence and Labour market reform

About

The phenomenon of globalisation encompasses far-reaching and elemental changes in the socio-economic and political dynamics of contemporary world. The ‘Washington hypothesis’ propagates that liberal trade and deregulation is beneficial for economic growth and welfare. Contemporary global economic and political changes based on such an understanding have raised questions about potential policy convergence and homogenising tendency of globalisation. This dissertation situates itself within contemporary debates about the impact of globalisation on public policy, specifically labour market policy by questioning the potential impact of policy convergence on labour policy mediated through political actors and institutions. To isolate the impact of political variables perceived divergences in labour market outcome of structurally similar economies are sought to be analysed from a comparative political economy perspective. The proposed research design treats political configuration, trade union, business and government as the explanatory variables. A sub national comparative study of political dynamics of three states (provinces) within India with substantial variation in labour policy outcome is intended to investigate such relation. The research aims to draw out broader conclusions from the particular case study and seeks to test it on similar economies.

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