Social corporatism

Social democracy
Development Humanism Age of Enlightenment French Revolution Utopian socialism Trade unionism Revolutions of 1848 Orthodox Marxism Revisionism Reformism Gradualism Frankfurt Declaration
Ideas Representative democracy Civil liberties Economic democracy Labor rights Mixed economy Nationalization Welfare state Fair trade Environmental protection Rhine Capitalism Secularism Social corporatism Social Market Economy Folkhemmet
Variants Bernsteinism Nordic model Godesburg Third Way
People List of social democrats  · Clement Atlee  · Obafemi Awolowo  · Eduard Bernstein  · Zulfikar Ali Bhutto  · Hjalmar Branting  · John Curtin  · Ignacy Daszyński  · Tommy Douglas  · Bülent Ecevit  · Jean Jaurès  · Zhang Junmai  · Tetsu Katayama  · Ferdinand Lassalle  · Jack Layton  · René Lévesque  · Nelson Mandela  · Ramsay MacDonald  · Jawaharlal Nehru  · José Batlle y Ordóñez  · Georgi Plekhanov  · Michael Joseph Savage  · Belinda Stronach
Organizations Social democratic parties Socialist International International Union of Socialist Youth Party of European Socialists Young European Socialists International Trade Union Confederation SAMAK
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Social corporatism is a form of economic tripartite corporatism supported by social democratic political parties based upon "social partnership" between capital and labour interest groups as well as between the market economy and state regulation that is considered a compromise to regulate conflict between capital and labour by mandating them to engage in mutual consultations based that are mediated by the government.¹² Social corporatism developed in the post-World War II period. Social corporatism has been developed by social democrats in European countries such as Austria, Norway, Germany and Sweden.³

Positions

Position on class conflict: class compromise

Some controversy has existed in the political left over social corporatism on the issue of class conflict, it has been identified in a critical manner by some on the revolutionary left as a form of regulated capitalism that has abandoned the concept of class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in its recognition of private property and for placing privately-owned enterprise on an equal level to trade unions.⁴ Others on the left counter these criticisms by the revolutionary left by claiming that social corporatism has been progressive in providing institutional legitimacy to the labour movement that recognizes the existence of ongoing class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat but seeks to provide peaceful resolutions to disputes arising from the conflict based on moderation rather than revolution.⁵ Thus proponents of social corporatism consider it a class compromise within the context of existing class conflict.⁶

History

1930s-1970s: Norway, Sweden, and Austria

The development of social corporatism began in Norway and Sweden in the 1930s and was consolidated in the 1960s and 1970s.⁷ The system was based upon the dual compromise of capital and the labour as one component and the market and the state as the other component.⁸ Social corporatism developed in Austria under the post-World War II coalition government of the Social Democratic Party of Austria and the Austrian People's Party.⁹ Social corporatism in Austria protects private property in exchange for allowing the labour movement to have political recognition and influence in the economy, in order to avoid the harsh class conflict that plagued Austria in the 1930s.¹⁰

References