Question

Is there a difference between capitalism and corporatism?

Comments

i would say yes, but that's not knowing a ton about corporatism, as it's a word used by folks i don't pay much attention to. so there are probably people who use the word capitalism to mean something the same as or very similar to corporatism.

my use of the word capitalism refers not just to an economic system, but also a social/cultural one, and a psychological dynamic (or many)...

some thoughts are more fleshed out in the following threads--
http://anarchy101.org/7916/what-is-capitalism?show=7916#q7916

http://anarchy101.org/8004/people-focus-much-corporations-when-they-critique-capitalism?show=8004#q8004

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and another thread of possible interest:

http://anarchy101.org/11388/are-hierarchies-and-class-systems-natural?show=11388#q11388

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I'd say that corporatism is just capitalism taken to the extreme with the added weight of made up legality to enforce the whole scam.

Answer 1

I know that corporatism used to be called fascism.

I did find an article that listed a bunch of old dictionary deffinitions.

It was actually Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile who wrote the entry in the Encyclopedia Italiana that said: “Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.... "

As the 1983 American Heritage Dictionary noted, fascism is, “A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism.”  ...

Mussolini was quite straightforward about all this. In a 1923 pamphlet titled “The Doctrine of Fascism” he wrote, “If classical liberalism spells individualism, Fascism spells government.” But not a government of, by, and for We The People; instead, it would be a government of, by, and for the most powerful corporate interests in the nation.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/11/mussolini-style-corporatism-aka-fascism-on-the-rise-in-the-us.html

So.... my interpretation is that corportatism is when there is NO SEPARATION between business leaders and government leaders.

Answer 2

Corporatism is the idea that society and the economy of an area or country should be organized into major interest and/or industrial group (i.e corporations) and the representatives of whichever interest group (corporation) would settle any problems through negotiation and joint agreement. Under corporatism the labor force and the management of whichever industry belong to an industrial organization aka corporation. The representatives of each corporation would settle any disputes (like wage disputes) through negotiations with the collective body of the corporation. That's the basic idea behind corporatism or corporatist states as I understand it. Usually it functioned according to the will of some dictator, like Mussolini, Franco, Hitler...etc, rather than the representatives per se. It's mostly associated with Fascism, but not all corporatist areas/countries are/were fascist dictatorships. Some modern examples of countries that could be considered corporatist states would be like China, Iran, Russia and a few others.

Corporatism could be summed up as being de facto nationalization. Like private property (means of production) isn't exactly nationalized per se, but the way it's controlled via tight government intervention/regulations makes it seem like it has been nationalized. The ideas of corporatism partly originates with some dude named Adam Müller. Mussolini was the first who put the coporatism into practice, I believe.

Also, corporatism doesn't have much, if anything, to do with those big business corporations like in the US today. Some think it does for some reason. I suppose that is because the word "corporation" is used. Those big business corporations that we know of today in like the US are examples of capitalism. Anyhoot, that's my understanding of corporatism.
 

Capitalism is an economic system based upon individual "rights" and private property "rights" (means of production) where all goods (capital) produced are owned privately by the owner of the means of production, rather than the ones that produced said goods, like the worker. There is a degree of government intervention in capitalism.