Corporatism is defined as an economic and political system or concept where the decision-making power is in the hands of the organizations and not of the people. In this system, those who run large corporations are those who negotiate and sign agreements, which then become the rules by which society must be governed; these rules are generally associated with economic decisions.
Generally, corporatism is made up of the communication or interaction of three sectors: employers' associations, trade union associations, and the government as negotiator for both. In fact, for a true corporatism to exist, society must be divided into classes (businessmen, workers, etc.)
Corporatism in its modern sense originated in Italy after the First World War, it was created by Benito Mussolini as a method of social control to consolidate the State. According to this doctrine, corporatism would bring together the workers, businessmen and the government. Its authority would include from the determination of wages, the solution of labor disputes, the coordination in the production, the enunciation of collective labor contracts and the forecast of all kinds of strikes that cause the closure of companies.
It is important to note that this term has not been very well seen, since for many corporatism is used to designate economic measures that only seek the benefit of one sector, generally that of the large elites (businessmen, union leaders, government officials). This is why to ensure that the decisions taken are maintained over time, it is essential that the internal structure of each body be vertical, this results in acts of corruption, internal fraud in the unions, etc.
The lower strata (workers, and small merchants) are located at the base of the pyramid and if there is any disagreement on their part, the claims would be made internally within the corporation, they reached the top and from there they generated interaction with other corporations. This methodology brought discontent in the lower sectors (workers, small merchants) since they did not feel truly represented.
The most common thing within corporatism is that the two main corporations represented by the companies and the unions negotiated, having the government as a mediator since the State was supposed to exercise a neutral role. However, the State had representatives on both parties, so their role as arbitrator was questionable. What this shows is that the State ends up meddling considerably in the economy and in society.
