Corporatism A form of social organization in which the key economic, political and social decisions are made by corporate groups, or these groups and the state jointly.
Individuals have influence only through their membership of corporate bodies.
These include trade unions, professions, business corporations, political pressure groups and lobbies, and voluntary associations. Corporatism may be contrasted with decision-making via the market, in which individuals who make their own private market choices collectively and cumulatively shape society. At the political level, corporatism may also be contrasted with the traditional form of liberal democracy in which political decisions were taken only by governments representing the electorate directly. Many Western European democracies moved towards a tripartite form of corporatism in the 1970s, and governments made social and economic policy in consultation and negotiation with the powerful vested interests of trade union movements and employers' associations. Trade unions restrained their members' strike activity and pay demands, employers aligned the pursuit of their private interests with those of the state, while governments in return protected labour and pursued economic expansion.