This book presents a timely examination of populism not simply as a political phenomenon, but as a legal problem in a rapidly changing world of work. It explores how populist claims about workers, inequality, welfare and sovereignty are translated into labour law, social policy and the institutional architecture of fundamental social rights.
Expert authors move beyond the assumption that populism either undermines or revitalises social rights. Instead, they reveal a more complex pattern in which populist governments may deliver visible and sometimes significant forms of protection while leaving untouched, or weakening, the institutions through which workers exercise collective power. The book develops a distinction between protective populism and empowering social law, asking when social measures genuinely strengthen rights and when they remain selective, state-centred or politically contingent. Chapters examine inequality, precarious work, labour mobility, social partnership, trade unionism and international labour governance across the Americas, Europe and Southeast Asia, as well as the EU and the International Labour Organization.
Populism and Fundamental Social Rights is a vital resource for scholars and students of law, social policy, political science and industrial relations. Policymakers, employers’ organisations, trade union representatives and civil society actors will also benefit from its analysis of the relationship between populism, labour law and fundamental social rights.
