The Left's Dirty Job

Download or read book The Left's Dirty Job written by W. Rand Smith and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Left's Dirty Job compares the experiences of recent socialist governments in France and Spain, examining how the governments of Francois Mitterrand (1981-1995) and Felipe Gonzalez (1982-1996) provide a key test of whether a leftist approach to industrial restructuring is possible. This study argues that, in fact, both governments's policies generally resembled those of other European governments in their emphasis on market-adapting measures that eliminated thousands of jobs while providing income support for displaced workers. Featuring extensive field work and interviews with over one hundred political, labor, and business leaders, this study is the first systematic comparison of these important socialist governments.