[quote]orion wrote:
In essence you are simply saying that political parties are corporations.
You´d even have a point that a party system could be seen as institutionalized corporatism but that is not how this term is usually used.
By using “corporatism” you mean Big Business.
Think tanks, the NRA or even the Oprah book club can be seen as corporations but they are also the sign of a healthy civil society and they usually are not trying to influence government policies to profit financially.
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Political Parties are, by definition, corporations, as they are civic assemblies with their own internal structure and hierarchy that are beyond the direct control of non-members. That is a corporation.
What consequence is it how the term “corporatism” is usually used today? The model has been around for centuries. The fact that it is now used almost exclusively in reference to big business influence is a result of the term “corporation” never being applied to anything other than the business model. This kind of corporatism needs its own term; neocorporatism maybe.
Think tanks, the NRA, Oprah’s book club can be seen as corporations because they are corporations. But you’re right. The existence many types of corporations, by the traditional and correct definition, do signify a healthy civil society. So corporatism is only as evil as the corporations with influence.