Critical Notes on Labour Market Deregulation

First the financial market, then the product market... surely the time has come for deregulation of the labour market? Social theorists argue that labour market deregulation is something of an oxymoron. The market for labour power will always be regulated by someone, if not by the state or the unions then by the untrammelled power of capital. This, i think, is true, but it is not central to the purpose of this paper, which is rather to assess the narrowly economic case for deregulation.