College of Political Knowledge

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:  Government/Political Philosophy

Paper  #32

For this lecture I could start where corporatism was most pronounced…that would be with the “illiterate Italian and the Krazy Kraut”….but that would start a whole new conversation into the merits of such regimes and I will not have that conversation at this time….

But I would bet that you have no idea what “corporatism” is and how it works…let me help….

I will use a more modern definition of the term….we have talked about the whereto fores of the Kraut in the past….Corporatism is a means of incorporating organized interests into the process of government….it refers to a tendency in mature liberal small L not the large L) democracies for organized interests to be granted special privilege and institutional access for these interests to policy formulation…..

T put it another way…it is an way of state which develops along with republican style democracy….corporatism has become entrenched in the economic and social levels of a democracy….corporatism is quickly becoming an end point of democratic rule where special interests and state have become the one and the same….

There you are…a description of what is happening in the US with the oil, health, drug and financial interests…they all have unlimited influence over the formation of policies that effect us all.

You think not?  The Supreme Court recently made it legal for corporations to use their unlimited funds to influence the direction of the country…not that that is unusal….it has been happening for decades if not longer…..

These corporations are now in the drivers seat of government….before they were a passenger with a good amount of influence but thanks to SCOTUS…they are now driving the country….

Is the trip into corporatism good for the country and the people that live here?  Is this inevitable or is it just a phase of our government?  Once the corporations have the power, how do the people take it back from the special interests?