Corporate statism

Corporate statism, state corporatism, or simply corporatism is a political culture and a form of corporatism the proponents of which claim or believe that corporate groups should form the basis of society and the state. By this principle, the state requires all citizens to belong to one of several officially designated interest groups (based generally on economic sector), which consequently have great control of their members. Such interest groups thus attain public status, and they or their representatives participate with national policymaking, at least formally. As with other political cultures, societies have existed historically which exemplified corporate statism, for instance as propounded by Othmar Spann (1878–1950) in Austria and implemented by Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) in Italy (1922–1943), António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo in Portugal (1933–1974) and by the Federal State of Austria. After World War II, corporate statism influenced the rapid development of South Korea and Japan. Corporate statism most commonly manifests itself as a ruling party acting as a mediator between the workers, capitalists and other major state interests by incorporating them institutionally into the government. Corporatist systems were most prevalent during the mid-20th century in Europe and later elsewhere in developing countries. One criticism is that interests, both social and economic, are so diverse that a state cannot possibly define or organize them effectively by incorporating them. Corporate statism differs from corporate nationalism in that it is a social mode of organization rather than economic nationalism operating by means of private business corporations. The topic remains controversial in some countries, including South Korea, Japan, and Portugal.