The proposed paper attempts to highlight the continued importance of political parties and party system in determining labour policy and outcome under conditions of globalisation.
The actual case study is based on a sub national comparative study of labour policy and outcome in India (sub national states Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal) which enables us to deal with potential impact of wider structural and institutional dynamics constant.
The principal argument put forth is that the extent of labour market reforms exhibited in sub national states is not merely conditioned by broader structural transformations (globalisation) but also by political dynamics particularly party system which acts as an intermediate variable between labour and capital in a democracy.
Based on the data I argue that the power of labour or business in influencing social policy is significantly influenced by the nature of their interaction with party in power.
Theoretically such a finding reintroduces political processes in the analysis of economic reforms which has been hitherto dominated by institution based analysis.
