CORPORATISM originated among 19th-century conservatives. As an alternative to the liberals' and progressives' idea of extending the franchise, the corporatists wanted to give parliamentary representation to groups representing specific industries.

This conservative corporatism was taken up by that brand of ultra-conservatives that we call fascists - first of all, in the birthplace of fascism, Italy. At the same time as banning free trade unions, the Italian Fascists set up a system of compulsory "unions" involving representation from three groups involved with each industry - the employers, the employees, and Fascist Party officials (effectively, therefore, under totalitarian control). These unions - or "corporations" - sent delegates to a National Council of Corporations. In 1938, the National Fascist Council was merged with the Council of Corporations to form the new legislature, with the old Chamber of Deputies being dissolved. Italy was now fully a "corporative state" in the fascist sense of that term.

Fascist corporatism also became national policy in rightwing Portugal under its authoritarian regime, in Dolfuss's fascist Austria, in Franco's fascist Spain, and in Argentina under the rightwing dictator Perón. As far as I know, corporatism was not tried by the Nazis.

Note: A major group of Spanish fascists called themselves "National Syndicalists". Presumably "syndicalism" referred to corporatism, and "national" referred to nationalism.

Forms of corporatism have also been employed in much milder forms - forms not strictly meriting the label "corporatist" - in liberal democracies. For example, in Britain in the 60s and 70s, unions, employers and government would meet to try to work out government policies on price and wage restraints. This arrangement was supported at various times by the dominant moderate wings of both major political parties. The social democrats and Christian democrats of some Western European countries went further, in particular with the creation of "works councils" on which employers and employees meet, and of, for example, compulsory worker representation on boards of large companies in Germany.

Syndicalism derives from "syndicat", the French term for a trade union. The term seems to have three distinct meanings (distinct, but related, since many syndicalists have believed in all three). Webster's 9th new collegiate sets them out: "syndicalism. 1: a revolutionary doctrine by which workers seize control of the economy and the government by direct action (as a general strike). 2 : a system of economic organization in which industries are owned and managed by the workers. 3 : a theory of government based on functional rather than territorial representation."

The third definition, probably the least common, is a reference to the connections between syndicalism and corporatism. An influential group of Spanish fascists called themselves "National Syndicalists" (las juntas de ofensive nacional sindicalistas) and I have wondered if this is a reference to their fascist corporatism. In 1975, Pears Cyclopedia linked the (syndicalist) doctrine of worker ownership with (syndicalist) corporatism by saying: "Under syndicalism... the state would be replaced by a federation of units based on functional economic organisation rather than geographical representation". So under this "syndicalism", workers' unions are represented at a state level, whereas fascist corporatism was a totalitarian system where the traffic was primarily one-way - with the fascist corporations being the party representatives at an industrial level.

The second definition refers to a form of socialism, but it is difficult to use the word "syndicalism" in this way because of the way this definition overlaps with and connects with the first definition - that of a revolutionary syndicalist. Also, there is an ambiguity: are syndicalists aiming at taking over the economy for all workers, or for workers' unions? Advocates of the latter would not accept that there could be a conflict, but clearly the traditional syndicalism - a form of trade unionism - interacts badly with a more purely anarchist syndicalism.

The sympathy of most forms of syndicalism for revolutionary methods - as in definition one - and for anarchist ideas largely explains the term "anarcho-syndicalism", which often simply means the same as syndicalism, but is, nonetheless, more precise.

As the definition stated, the form of syndicalist revolution most often argued for has been that of the general strike - or strike across all industries or by all unions (or as far as possible) - with the aim of taking over industry and government itself. Mainstream socialism has never had much sympathy for these methods and it is not clear precisely how or whether they would work.

A mild form of syndicalism was adopted by the English "guild socialists", though they were also drawing on their own indigenous socialist tradition.

"Christian Democracy" in Europe is the collective name for the views of the centre-right political parties. They are moderate conservatives many of whom have often been considerably influenced (some would say tainted) by the social-liberalism of their Social Democratic opponents.

Traditionally Christian, but nothing remotely like the American "Christian Right", who are a bunch of fanatic extremists.

©1998 Richard Pond