Corporatism, pluralism and post‐industrial politics: Nuclear energy policy in West Germany

Abstract

This article argues that pluralism increasingly typifies the policy process in states moving from an industrial to post‐industrial order. From an analysis of West German nuclear power policy over the past two decades, corporatist arrangements were found to be more tenuous than pluralist politics. The reasons for this are attributed to the nature of post‐industrial issues – informed by post‐materialist values – that divide less along traditional class and party lines, more within and across those lines. With political parties and party politics polarised, the consensus on basic values and priorities required for corporatist arrangements cannot be sustained.