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Corporativism in Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Paul Vignaux
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Extract

In the present crisis of Europe, some forward-looking observers are placing their ultimate hope in a corporative order. Within the first pages of a book recently published in Paris, a young French economist states that in the light of his country's defeat, “the modes of thought and action of a whole century, the XIXth, have been judged by their results and found wanting;” furthermore, under the stimulus of individualistic and utilitarian philosophies, joined with economic liberalism, a “disintegration” of society has resulted. After a close analysis of ancient and modern corporative regimes, Professor Denis concludes: “The only chance for salvation seemingly lies in the desperate effort of a small number of the old countries of the West to recreate a new community spirit, one manifestation of which would be the fostering of vocational groups. If this effort were not made or should fail, Europe would suffer irremediable decadence. … a new Dark Ages, without the hope of the Thirteenth Century.” We can recognize in this threat the pessimistic frame of mind which was so characteristic of young European intellectuals during the past decade. We shall see, however, that psychology is no less necessary than political science and economics for an understanding of the corporative movement in Europe.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , April 1942 , pp. 194 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1942

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References

1 Denis, Henri, La Corporation, Paris, Presses Universitaires, 1941Google Scholar. The purpose of this article being to explain the whole social phenomenon which can be called “European Corporativism,” we have borrowed largely from this book as well as from the work cited below, by Professor Perroux: we are considering them not in themselves as expressions of personal thought, but as instruments for understanding the phenomenon. They seem to us to have exceptional merit both as studies on economic theory, as philosophical essays and as an intellectual experiment in the psychology of an epoch. For a general view of corporativist literature in French, see Pirou, Gaetan, Essais sur le corporalisme, Paris, 1938Google Scholar.

2 This study on vocational groups is found in the editions of La Division du travail social, Paris, Alcan, subsequent to the second.

3 Cf. The Church and Social Order, a Statement of the Archbishops and Bishops of the Administrative Board of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, February 7, 1940. especially p. 10: “The Church does…” and p. 60: “The chief qualifications…” The book published by Rev. Trehey, Harold Francis, Foundations of a Modern Guild System, Washington, D.C., The Catholic University of America Press, contains criticisms of all European Corporative States, including Portugal, pp. 156–65Google Scholar, but considers with favor the industrial organizations which the National Industrial Recovery Ad, pp. 173–81 had outlined. After conceiving, almost without the power of bringing it into being, a “Corporativism by Association,” founded on the liberty of association and corporative autonomy, the Social Catholicism of Europe was rather embarrassed by the quite different corporativism which the authoritarian or totalitarian States established. It must also be noted that the work of Social Catholicism has generally remained on the moral and juridical level, without taking up the problems of economic theory, although they are of capital importance.

4 Perroux, Francis, Capilalisme et Communauie de travail, Paris, 1937, especially p. xiGoogle Scholar and p. 239, note. It is a sign of strength of the community idea in Europe to note that, in a country of individualistic and rationalistic mentality like France, it spread in circles of young intellectuals, such as those of the review Esprit, which were quite hostile to fascistic regimes. The concepts Gemeinschaft-Geselhchaft have been classic since Toennies.

5 Vermeil, Edmond, Les Doctrinaires de la revolution allemande, Paris, Sorlot, 1939, pp. 25–27Google Scholar.

6 Denis, H., op. cit. p. 22 et p. 29Google Scholar.

7 The most recent work on the complexity of the old corporative world is the thoroughly documented book of Professor Coornaert, Emile, Les Corporations en France avant 1789, Paris, Gallimard, 1941Google Scholar.

8 Labor Problems in America, edited by Stein, Emmanuel and Davis, Jerome, New York, Farrar and Rinehart, 1940, p. 282.—When we take up the problems of corporative technique, we must remember that this article can give neither a description nor a history of European corporative regimes. It presupposes that this task has been performed elsewhere; it aims at setting forth the essential problms of economic theory and of social philosophy which are raised when we attempt to understand these systems. Highly detailed information on these regimes will be found in the works of Denis and Perroux already cited. For Italy there is the excellent work of Franck, L. Rosenstock, L' Economie corporative dans la doctrine et dans les fails, Paris, Alcan, 1934Google Scholar, completed in a study by the same author of L'Economie fasciste which appeared in Paris, 1939Google Scholar, Editions du Centre Polytechnicien d'Etudes Economiques. Note too, the study of Spencer, Henry Russell: The Corporative State in Democracy is Different, Harper, New York, 1941Google Scholar.

9 Denis, H., op. cit. p. 42 and p. 117Google Scholar.

10 In first place among the theorists of the Estate, O. Spann must be mentioned, the formulator of “a true state,” and toward whom, may we add, National Socialism has shown but little consideration. On the only Estate which National Socialism has realized, the Food Estate, consult Bertrand, Raymond, he Corporatisme agricole et l'Organisation its marches en Allemagne, Paris, Librairie générale de Droit, 1937: the author insists excellently on the necessity of the study of markets, which he is making, as his contribution, in a most precise fashionGoogle Scholar.