The chapter describes the dependent variable and its variation. It also discusses the political implications of the way in which the (perceived) tradeoff between employment creation and wage egalitarianism binds distributive strategies to elite approaches toward the empowered inclusion of labor and the unity of the Left.

Empowering Labor uses a comparative study of Chile, Portugal, and Uruguay to analyze the underlying political dynamics that shape the use of wage policy as a pre-distributive instrument of leftist parties in power in unequal democracies. The book theorizes that the unity of the Left and labor’s political legitimacy are two main drivers for the usage of wage policy as a pre-distributive instrument for promoting inclusion. These factors are shaped by elite long-term strategies toward labor. Such strategies, when dominant for long enough periods, create path dependency, shaping differential opportunities for further options down the road. The book integrates large-scale historical processes with frequently analyzed short-term and agency-based factors to elucidate variation in the crafting of wage policies and reshapes the debate on the politics of pre-distribution in unequal democracies by situating the cases in a longer historical arc.

The chapter analyzes the decline of previously dominant strategies in each of the three countries and the electoral strengthening of leftist parties and their strategies and political decisions at the onset of the dual transition during a period of political radicalization. In doing so, the chapter analyzes through a comparative lens leftist unity and Left-labor relations during and after the dual transition within the scope of power constellations in each country.

Empowering Labor uses a comparative study of Chile, Portugal, and Uruguay to analyze the underlying political dynamics that shape the use of wage policy as a pre-distributive instrument of leftist parties in power in unequal democracies. The book theorizes that the unity of the Left and labor’s political legitimacy are two main drivers for the usage of wage policy as a pre-distributive instrument for promoting inclusion. These factors are shaped by elite long-term strategies toward labor. Such strategies, when dominant for long enough periods, create path dependency, shaping differential opportunities for further options down the road. The book integrates large-scale historical processes with frequently analyzed short-term and agency-based factors to elucidate variation in the crafting of wage policies and reshapes the debate on the politics of pre-distribution in unequal democracies by situating the cases in a longer historical arc.

The chapter provides the theoretical framework for analyzing distributive strategies in unequal societies under open market capitalism and presents the book's theoretical contributions. This chapter theorizes those elite strategies toward labor and the unity of the Left are important factors for understanding leftist governments' distributive strategies.

The chapter analyzes how the short- and long-term factors analyzed in the previous chapters combine in shaping leftist governments’ decisions regarding stable distributive strategies. The analysis focuses on the use of wage policy by reviewing labor reforms and the evolution of wage-related institutions and their use by these governments.

The chapter offers a large-scale historical review of elite strategies toward the empowered inclusion of labor before the dual transition. This macro-historical process of elite response to labor political activism shapes dominant elite strategies and, over the long term, affects labor’s ability to build political legitimacy.

The chapter discusses the theoretical merits of analyzing how distributive strategies are based on the outcomes of wage policy reforms. This final chapter also draws theoretical lessons and identifies possible challenges that may lie ahead for leftist governments and their distributive strategies.