Corporatism

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Corporatism (also corporativism , Latin corporativus , 'forming a body') is a political science technical term used to describe various forms of participation of certain social groups in political decision-making processes. First, a distinction is made between authoritarian and liberal corporatism. Authoritarian corporatism describes the forced involvement of economic or social groups in authoritarian decision-making processes. Liberal corporatism describes the voluntary participation of social organizations.

research

There are several theories of corporatism:

  • Peter Katzenstein : democratic corporatism distinguishes between social and liberal corporatism.
  • Philippe C. Schmitter defines corporatism as a structural principle.
  • Gerhard Lehmbruch defines corporatism as a mode of political coordination.
  • The concepts of Schmitter and Lehmbruch were later further differentiated into a pluralism of corporatism that can be systematized in many ways.

Since authoritarian corporatism is only of historical importance, while liberal corporatism has many modern forms, the earlier confrontational juxtaposition of pluralism versus corporatism is considered outdated. Current research focuses on the modes of mediation of interests in political networks and the multi-actor models of political decisions.

Authoritarian corporatism

definition

Authoritarian corporatism is a form of corporatism imposed by the state. Its characteristics are a limited number of formed compulsory associations with associated compulsory membership. The work of the associations is already geared towards a predefined “common good” of society. It does not result from a group consensus, as in pluralism , but from state determination.

Examples

Forms of state-authoritarian corporatism can mainly be found in dictatorships . Authoritarian corporatism first appeared in Italian fascism under Benito Mussolini , but was later also adopted in Austrofascism under Engelbert Dollfuss , under National Socialism under the name " Volksgemeinschaft " and by Salazar in Portugal under the name " Estado Novo ". Mussolini's model was the “modern capitalism” of the Brazilian dictator Getúlio Dornelles Vargas in the 1930s. Corporatism should also avoid the conflict-oriented socialist and communist class struggle and replace it with peaceful negotiations between corporations. In Italy, the fascist ideology was mainly promoted by Alfredo Rocco , who later achieved a great political rise under Mussolini. He had the Italian economy divided into 22 corporations, all of which were represented in the Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni .

Representative

Julius Evola , a pioneer of Italian fascism , wrote of corporatism: “The spirit of corporatism (the political endeavor to renew the state through the creation of professional associations) was essentially that of a working group and creative solidarity, with principles firmly rooted in principles of expertise, qualification, and natural hierarchy, all characterized by active superiority, selflessness, and dignity. All of this was clearly visible in the medieval craft corporations, the guilds and guilds. "

Max Hildebert Boehm also represented the idea of ​​corporatism, combined with ethnic thinking.

Liberal corporatism or neo-corporatism

definition

The neo-corporatism or liberal corporatism is characterized in particular by the voluntary integration of economic or social organizations. The concept of liberal corporatism is specifically linked to the possibility for association members to withdraw from the institutionalized cooperation. In the case of minimum wages in the sector , however, people without associations are also forced into cooperation, according to which the minimum wage decided by the associations also applies to them.
The involvement takes place both in terms of the formulation of political goals and in the decision-making process as well as in the fulfillment of state tasks and services. Elements of the mediation of interests are mutual information, the negotiation of multilateral agreements and controllable obligations, which require a high degree of willingness to reach consensus on the part of the actors involved.

A practical example of such a new corporatism is the “ concerted action ” initiated by the first grand coalition (1966–1969) , in which the behavior of local authorities, employers' associations and trade unions was coordinated in order to achieve macroeconomic goals. In Austria, the “ social partnership ” functions as a counterpart to the “concerted action” in Germany .

Examples

There are many examples of this type of corporatism:

  • Liberal corporatism is particularly pronounced in concordance democracies .
  • One form of this corporatism is tripartism , that is, in the coordination of the state, trade unions and employers' associations e.g. B. Polder model , concerted action in the economy.
  • Another example is the Austrian model of social partnership , which is similarly widespread in Germany and other social market economies : employers and employees , for example, do not use strikes or other means of industrial action to resolve their disputes, for example over different wage claims , but rather try in the interests of Economics (of the " location ") to reach an agreement as smoothly as possible.
  • Situational corporatism describes corporatist arrangements which, in addition to the formation of a political consensus, also have direct relevance to performance policy, e.g. B. technical standardization, vocational training or health policy (e.g. concerted action in health care ). Their use is an essential feature of modern technology, location and structural policy.
  • As part of the subsidiarity concept, the self-regulating and state-relieving function of corporatist networks is used. By transferring quasi-public functions to interest groups, the regulatory strategy of streamlining the state is pursued.

evaluation

The main advantage within neocorporatism is the increase in governability. A state can only react poorly to social developments without information from business and society and is therefore dependent on information from interest groups . This relieves the burden on state authorities or ministries , as the interest groups make their knowledge available. Furthermore, associations act as public welfare-oriented steering bodies within their fields of activity. Nonetheless, there is a tendency towards institutionalization, a feature of the delegation principle. As a result, corporatism emerges as a mechanism that originally leads delegates who were originally designated as representatives of interests to orient themselves more towards the success of negotiations with the corporates of the opponents than towards the representation of their base.

The danger of the “arrest” of state authorities and the process of “de-parliamentarization” - a process that shifts the work of interests solely to the executive branch and seems to bypass parliament - turn out to be a considerable disadvantage . The aim is to influence individual draft laws as early as the referent stage. This applies in particular to the interests of traditional associations (trade unions and employers' associations) within economic policy. So there is a real risk that it will only come to the fulfillment of a particular common good in favor of organized umbrella organizations. Economic liberals see corporatism as inefficient when state-protected cartels arise because this would lead to welfare losses.

See also

literature

  • Heidrun Abromeit : Mediation of interests between competition and concordance. Opladen 1993, pp. 146-176
  • Ulrich von Alemann, Erhard Forndran (Ed.): Mediation of interests and politics . West German publishing house 1983
  • Ulrich von Alemann, Rolf. G. Heinze (Hrsg.): Associations and State. From pluralism to corporatism. Opladen 1979
  • Louis Baudin : Le Corporatisme, Italie, Portugal, Allemagne, Espagne, France , Paris, Libraire generale de droit et de jurisprudence 1942
  • Roland Czada: Business cycles of corporatism. On the history of a paradigm shift in association research . In: Wolfgang Streeck (Ed.): State and Associations (= PVS-Sonderheft 25). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1994, pp. 37-64 ( online version ; PDF; 354 ​​kB).
  • Clemens Jesenitschnig: Gerhard Lehmbruch - Scientist and Work. A critical appreciation . Tectum, Marburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8288-2509-3 , Chapter 4 (on the genesis of the modern social science analysis of “corporatism”).
  • Realino Marra: Aspetti dell'esperienza corporativa nel periodo fascista. In: Annali della Facoltà di Giurisprudenza di Genova, XXIV-1.2, 1991-92, pp. 366-379.
  • Bernhard Weßels: The Development of German Corporatism . In: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte , B 26-27, 2000, pp. 16-21 ( online version ).
  • Quirin Weber: Corporatism instead of socialism. The idea of ​​the professional order in Swiss Catholicism during the interwar period. Friborg 1989.
  • Peter Cornelius Mayer-Tasch : Corporatism and Authoritarianism. A study of the theory and practice of the professional legal and state idea . Athenaeum, Frankfurt am Main 1971 (also: Mainz, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1970/71).
  • Ulrich von Alemann : Neo-corporatism . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1981, ISBN 3-593-32837-2 (Campus. Critical Social Science) .
  • William Patch: Fascism, Catholic Corporatism, and the Christian Trade Unions of Germany, Austria, and France . In: Lex Heerma van Voss (ed.): Between Cross and Class. Comparative Histories of Christian Labor in Europe, 1840–2000 . Peter Lang, Bern 2005, ISBN 3-03910-044-0 , pp. 173-201.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dieter Nohlen, Rainer-Olaf Schultze: Lexicon of Political Science, Vol. 1: A – M: Theories, Methods, Terms. 4th edition, 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-59233-1 , p. 517.
  2. ^ Peter J. Katzenstein: Small States in World Markets: Industrial Policy in Europe. Cornell University Press, 1985.
  3. ↑ a b Dieter Nohlen, Rainer-Olaf Schultze: Lexicon of Political Science, Vol. 1: A – M: Theories, Methods, Terms. 4th edition, 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-59233-1 , p. 518.
  4. ^ Julius Evola: Economy and Politics . In: People in the midst of ruins . Tübingen 1991, pp. 301-316.
  5. ↑ Sylke Behrends: Explanation of group phenomena in economic policy: political and economic theories as well as analytical approaches. Duncker & Humblot, 1999, ISBN 978-3-428-49290-9 , pp. 97-98.