Wage - Labour Nexus, Social Spending and Régulation over the Long Period: From Support to Conflict

Studying the wage-labour nexus over the long period Régulationnists show its own ability to an extreme stretch: the production of surplus and its levy were initially developed independently of the living conditions of workers and then gradually incorporate the standards of consumption and production. The historical plasticity of the wage-labour nexus has allowed its adaptation to the demands of accumulation. One of the terms of this historical extension is to have integrated social spending. Using previous quantitative analysis, the paper show the structuring nature of social expenditure for growth using the way in which such expenditure is funded in the long term. In France, social expenditure (education, health and pensions for ederly) has increased periodically since the beginning of the nineteenth century, forming a component of the end of the long phases of depression. This common feature enables us to show how social expenditure becomes a structural component of growth. The study of the funding of social spending (between the state, the household and the businesses) shows the way in which this component became established as time went by: less than a question of redistribution, social expenditure involves recognition of its increasingly productive character. The integration of social spending in economic growth is the cause of an abundant debate for or against the welfare state whose peaks correspond to the critical episodes of economic conditions. Our purpose is different: through our historical analysis of social spending, for now limited to the French case, this paper attempts to understand how the development of these expenses acts on the mode of regulation. On this point, the wage-labour nexus including social spending is most often studied as a distributive question. The paper introduces new quantitative elements about the two dimensions of wage-labour nexus: the distribution but also capital accumulation (1). Doing so, we intend to show that social spending includes the wage-labour nexus in which they develop a specific operation. This paper aims to explain the current impasse in their contribution as the result of indeterminacy they settle into the dynamics of wage-labour nexus and the régulation mode cannot arbitrate. This paper proposes to interpret this in terms of régulation conflict (2). JEL classification : J32, B52, N33, N34