How does institutional change occur? Two strategies for reforming the scope of labour law

There is currently a broad consensus over the need to reform the personal scope of the application of labour law. Great ideas are only the beginning of any law reform process, however. As labour law scholars, we often act as if change is driven by ideas, even as we observe and write about other causes of institutional change. The puzzle of how institutional change occurs in practice has absorbed regulatory and institutional theorists for some time. This article draws on the work of Kathleen Thelen, in particular. It is concerned with two strategies of purposeful institutional change and with the question of how agents of social change bring about reform. These strategies are here termed 'complementary layering' and 'experimental displacement' and illustrated with case studies drawn from the textile, clothing and footwear industry in Australia and head-load work in Maharashtra, India, two of the most innovative examples of strategies to expand the scope of labour market regulation worldwide. A mixed methodology entailing interviews with workers and regulatory agents, legal analysis and broader political economy analysis is employed to explore the strengths and weaknesses of these strategies for bringing about institutional change in practice.