Corporatism Analysis

Corporatism analysis is the conceptual and comparative framework for characterizing how organized interests are represented and incorporated into policymaking, defined classically by Philippe Schmitter's 1974 essay 'Still the Century of Corporatism?'. Schmitter contrasts corporatism — a system in which a limited number of singular, compulsory, non-competitive, hierarchically ordered peak associations are recognized or licensed by the state and granted a representational monopoly in exchange for controlling their members — with pluralism, in which many voluntary, competing, non-hierarchical associations vie for influence. The framework further distinguishes societal from state corporatism and analyzes tripartite concertation among government, labor, and capital.