[ThereBeDragons]

Is it a viable economic system, or will it inevitably collapse? Is it inherently some form of bastard state capitalism, based fundamentally on the private ownership and profit form of capital, or can a corporatist state's interests "vary" on a spectrum between supporting entrenched elite and the welfare of workers?

[Preston Cole]

If I'm not mistaking, Marxists see Corporatism as "decadent capitalism," where the business class influences and controls government activity to the horrid disadvantage of the common worker. Although, we must note that almost every liberal, conservative and socialist equates corporatism with "business first, government second," which is a gross factual error. Corporatism, when it was practiced by the Catholic Church and Fascist Italy, employed the opposite of what these groups might call it: government coerced corporations into accepting state commands, absorbing them into the state apparatus, while retaining private ownership of said corporations.

The basis of anti-corporatist thought is an error, however. When the groups I've mentioned above talk about corporatism, they seem to automatically refer to "corporations," or "business corporations," when, in fact, "corporatism" stems its structure from corpus, the Latin word for "body," and doesn't implicitly require extension into the business environment.

Even Penguins are corporatist, in that they commune within strong familial groups and form a so-called "body" in relation to neighboring groups.

(Penguins are fascist. )

[Jackal]

We have an abundance of Marxists on this board so surely someone can answer.

Pot, where are you?

[Tribbles]

Under normal circumstances, the economic elites will pursue economic liberalism, because those who are strongest and richest to begin with, have nothing to fear from this system.

But when the class-warfare gets rough, these elites are willing to compromise because the alternative is to loose their privileges.

And so they meet half-way. Corporatism is as such a way of organizing the compromises.

But with this Marxist outlook, one becomes blind to the moral foundation of corporatism, and there are other questions one have to consider as well, questions like for example:

1) Perhaps corporatism makes better policies then for example... Marxist-Leninism?
2) How about workers and other none-elite people who support the party that goes for corporatism and class-collaboration? Is it all about "false consciousness"?

For me, corporatism vs marxist-leninism is not so much about class-struggle, as it is a struggle between moral foundations. This is primarily a battle between social democrats and communists - fascists are few in numbers. The battle between liberal-capitalists and everyone else on the other hand, can be seen as a class-struggle between the elite and the majority. When it comes to non-elite people who support dark-blue movements such as the tea-party, I am open for the idea of "false consciousness" - basically just a fancy way of saying that they get fooled and manipulated, isn't it?

Edit, add-on thinking:
It can off course be theorized, that social democrats are potential fascists, that they will transform into corporativist authoritarians if put under pressure, thus dropping the merging between corporatism and parliamentarism/democracy that they usually opt for.

[Senter]

Is it a viable economic system, or will it inevitably collapse? Is it inherently some form of bastard state capitalism, based fundamentally on the private ownership and profit form of capital, or can a corporatist state's interests "vary" on a spectrum between supporting entrenched elite and the welfare of workers?

"corporatism ►
n. Political / Economic system in which power is exercised through large organizations (businesses, trade unions, their associated lobbying efforts, etc.) working in concert or conflict with each other; usually with the goal of influencing or subsuming the direction of the state and generally only to benefit their own socioeconomic agendas at the expense of the will of the people, and to the detriment of the common good."

Corporatism is an advanced form of capitalism as it decays and degenerates and as the means of production and the wealth it generates is concentrated in fewer hands. As such it is still a system of private property (ownership of the means of production) and in conflict with the interests of the working class. So it, too, must eventually be replaced by socialism (i.e. the means of production being owned by the workers).