Corporatism

This book is the first conceptual and comparative empirical work on the relation between corporatism and dictatorships, bringing both fields under a joint conceptual umbrella. It operationalizes the concepts of social and political corporatism, diffusion and critical junctures and their particular application to the study of Fascist-Era dictatorships. The book’s carefully constructed balance between theory and case studies offers an important contribution to the study of dictatorships and corporatism. Through the development of specific indicators in ‘critical junctures’ of regime change and institutionalization, as well as qualitative data based on different sources such as party manifestos, constitutions and constitutional reforms, expert commissions and the legislation that introduces corporatism, this book traces transnational sources of inspiration in different national contexts. By bringing together a number of both established and new voices from across the field, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of fascism, dictatorship and modern European politics.

In the comparative study of Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria, Mikkel Mailand explores the roles of social partners in regulating work and welfare through corporatist arrangements. This insightful book illustrates how the frequency of tripartite agreements has either been stable or has increased since the Great Recession of 2008, in spite of challenges from trade unions’ loss of power and political developments. It will be an invaluable read for academics and students in industrial relations, political economy and other social science disciplines addressing the formulation of work and welfare related policies.

Corporatism is the third great ideolgy of modern social and political organization and it is one of the main organizing concepts used in comparative political analysis. This study traces corporatism in history, analyzes its modern practice and shows the rise of corporatism in the US.

Originally published in 1985, this book provides a comprehensive discussion of the concept of corporatism. It seeks to develop models of the different types of corporatism against the background of a general model. It represents a systematic attempt to clarify, rather than simply discuss, the concept of corporatism in its various usages. It examines the three varieties of corporatism: a body of nineteenth- and twentieth-century prescriptive economic and social thought; the practice of certain authoritarian regimes with private ownership of the means of production and wage labour; and a theoretical tool of analysis employed to study relations between organised groups and the state in ostensibly liberal democracies. It draws on a wide range of historical and contemporary writing on the subject, and includes a detailed study of the ideas behind and nature of corporatism in Fascist Italy and in Portugal under Salazar and Caetano. The discussion of the varieties of corporatism is clearly related to debates in the social sciences on its nature.

This work looks at the process of European integration by focusing on interest intermediation in the European Community. In order to characterize and explain various patterns of interest intermediation, the author employs a modified, neo-institutionalist approach. This framework provides a coherent picture of interest intermediation and explains the variety of bargaining patterns and interest group participation in EC policy-making. This study also looks at issues important to the future of the European Union, focusing on policy-making, governance, and fair distribution of costs and benefits of integration. Euro-Corporation? will interest students and scholars of international relations, regional integration, European politics and European integration, interest groups, and industrial relations.

In 1914, the Ford Motor Company opened its Motion Picture Laboratory, an in-house operation that produced motion pictures to educate its workforce and promote its products. Just six years later, Ford films had found their way into schools and newsreels, travelogues, and even feature films in theaters across the country. It is estimated that by 1961, the company’s movies had captured an audience of sixty-four million people. This study of Ford’s corporate film program traces its growth and rise in prominence in corporate America. Drawing on nearly three hundred hours of material produced between 1914 and 1954, Timothy Johnson chronicles the history of Ford’s filmmaking campaign and analyzes selected films, visual and narrative techniques, and genres. He shows how what began as a narrow educational initiative grew into a global marketing strategy that presented a vision not just of Ford or corporate culture but of American life more broadly. In these films, Johnson uncovers a powerful rhetoric that Ford used to influence American labor, corporate style, production practices, road building, suburbanization, and consumer culture. The company’s early and continued success led other corporations to adopt similar programs. Persuasive and thoroughly researched, Rhetoric, Inc. documents the role that imagery and messaging played in the formation of the modern American corporation and provides a glimpse into the cultural turn to the economy as a source of entertainment, value, and meaning.

Since the 1980s, industrial relations and labor law in Israel have rapidly changed from a European style of corporatism to a model of pluralism familiar to North America. The country's legal and industrial relations systems have become more decentralized, yet more intensively regulated; they are no longer centrally managed, but they do not fit the neoliberal model of a free market. In recent years, a dynamic system for voicing interests has evolved, granting more leeway to individuals, identity-based representation, and a flourishing civil society, but restraining effective collective representation. In Fading Corporatism, Guy Mundlak explains the changing nature of labor law and industrial relations in Israel and the seemingly paradoxical outcomes of transformation as played out in numerous spheres, including the law governing the recognition of trade unions and strikes; the emergence of a human rights regime; and the regulation of temporary work agencies, Palestinian workers from the occupied territories, and migrant workers. Placing the example of Israel in a conceptual framework that draws on the literature of corporatism, Mundlak offers a theoretical coupling of legal studies and industrial relations that will interest scholars and practitioners in both fields. Surveying legal developments from 1920 to the present, Fading Corporatism will also appeal to readers interested in the political, economic, and legal history of Israel. At the same time, Mundlak emphasizes the comparative implications of the Israeli case study. His account is particularly instructive for countries in which traditionally corporatist industrial and legal systems are experiencing similar pressures, such as the Netherlands, Austria, and Germany.