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Does Corporatism Really Matter? The economic crisis and issues of political theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Goran Therborn
Goran Therborn
Affiliation:
Sociology, University of Gothenburg
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Abstract

In spite of a recently growing interest in corporatism as a political explanation of cross-national variations of economic performance and as a device for successful crisis management, there is little evidence that corporatism matters as a determinant of economic outcomes. Two kinds of corporatism – as a pattern of interest intermediation or industrial relations, and as a system of concerted public policy-making – are distinguished and tested with OECD data from the 1973 – 85 crisis. Little or no support for either corporatist explanation was found. Alternative perspectives of industrial relations, labour organisations, public policy concertation, state administration, and politico-economic institutions are discussed as offering more promising explanations of differences in governments’ responses to economic crisis.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , July 1987 , pp. 259 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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