The Corporatist Antagonism to Economic Dynamism

Abstract

This paper intends to describe the common traits of ‘corporatism’ both as an economic and political movement. The essence of corporatism is confusion in its theories and institutions and that characteristic has made its definition very complex. The paper indicates the existence of nine political myths in corporatist systems: the myth of unity, the myth of populism, the myth of the charismatic forms of power, the myth of politics as epic; the myth of progress against capitalist individualism, the myth of autarky, the myth of industrialization and the myth of politics as the dialectics of friend-enemy. Many of these political myths are effective in many present day democratic societies and prevent the development of a healthy and dynamic economy. Corporatist doctrines and institutions are the cause of the economic stagnation around the world. Corporatist doctrinaires are the “long defunct economists” that influence present day statesmen even beyond their conscious knowledge, having serious consequences in the dynamism of their economies. Corporatism is the adversary of individualism and a dynamic economy.