Conventional wisdom attributes the persistence of labor market rigidities in Spain to the power of insiders, typically identified as unions and permanent workers whose interests they supposedly represent. In this article, I take issue with this definition of the insiders, showing that in fact the robustness of existing labor market institutions in the face of long-standing problems of precariousness and unemployment can only be explained if the definition of “insiders” is expanded to include a far larger group of cross-class actors.

Research Group DTCENS - Carlos III University of Madrid