ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the literatures and theories on the politics of labour market deregulation. The chapter reviews the literature on the commonality and diversity of capitalism under globalisation in relation to VoC and VoNeoliberalism perspectives. While the power and autonomy of the government are important in effective implementation of labour policies as Kerstin Hamann and JohnKelly argued, power and autonomy do not explain the characteristics of labour policies and the extent of labour market deregulation by themselves. It was also the Labour government that attenuated the extent of economic and labour market deregulation in New Zealand in the late 1990s, again as the partisan theory would predict. It examines the historical and ideological legacies of labour unions and the labour policies in these countries before labour market deregulation was initiated in the 1990s, including the reform measures aimed at increasing labour market flexibility by the Japanese and Italian governments in the 1980s.
