Corporatism describes a form of organizational behaviour in which associations, while representing the particular interests of their members, also discipline them in the interests of some wider collectivity. It has mainly been used to describe systems of industrial relations, although it can be more widely applied to the role of certain kinds of trade association and other industry bodies outside the sphere of labour.

Its significance is that it might enable firms, unions of employees and other participants in a market economy to achieve a high level of cooperation and shared pursuit of collective goods that also serve a wider public interest, despite the fact that they are also in competition with one another. Associations will act in this way only under certain specific and rather precisely balanced situations of organizational design. Within modern social science the concept of corporatism should therefore be used with care and precision. This can be difficult given that it has had a long and strange history. It has mainly been associated with northern Europe, but also with Japan. Some economic branches, in particular agriculture, tend to be corporatist in a wider range of countries. Corporatism enjoyed a peak period of both actual performance and theoretical recognition during the 1970s, since when it has undergone important challenges and changed its form.

Colin Crouch