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Monday Morning Musing: About -ism's----Jun 18 '05 (Updated Jun 20 '05) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Musing: To turn something over in the mind meditatively and often inconclusively
I would like to "turn something over in my mind" regarding a few of the many political/economic -ism's out there these days, especially the term "Corporatism." This is the turf of eggheads---whoops!---intellectuals, and I am neither very well educated nor very well read on the subject of political economy. But I'm a moderately well informed pragmatist, and I rely a lot on my personal experience and common sense. I've been an adult observer and participant in over 50 years of history! The Enlightenment, the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution brought us Capitalism, and the unfettered application of the ideas of Adam Smith began to bring about a lot of intellectual attention to the problems of Capitalism. Capitalism is generally acknowledged to be the greatest wealth-producing system ever conceived, creating wealth for owners, workers and consumers. But it also brought problems related to exploitation, "unfair" competitive practices, and disastrous business cycles. Those problems became more and more apparent in the 1920's, and reached panic proportions with the crash of 1929 and the resulting worldwide depression. Many believed that the extreme hardship this created for nearly all was inherent in the Capitalist system, and revolutionary ideas evolved for a better system for controlling the means of production and regulating the flow of goods and services to the citizenry. Many saw Socialism as the solution, with government ownership of the means of production. Both Capitalism and Socialism are seen by their proponents as "untried ideals," neither having ever been implemented in pure form. An abrupt changeover of an economy to Socialism could only come about through revolution leading to Totalitarianism, and the merging of those ideas became Communism. Communism was seen by many others as a serious threat, and a counter idea came about in the 1920's called Corporatism, in which the means of production would remain in the hands of private owners, but would be manipulated by the government to regulate the flow of products and services to the citizens. In Italy, the idea of Corporatism was combined with an extreme Nationalism, a government based on Totalitarianism, and a fearful Anticommunism---and the result is Fascism, implemented in Italy under Mussolini in the mid 1920's. In Germany, the idea of Fascism was combined with Racism, principally Anti-Semitism, to bring about National Socialism, or Nazism, in the 1930's. Some like to point out that neither Nazism nor Communism are Socialism, although both their proponents and their enemies liked to characterize them that way! This movement led to World War II, and the end of the great experiment in Fascism, except for extremist fringes. In Western Europe the efforts to preserve the wealth-producing advantages of Capitalism turned to Welfare Stateism, a form of Corporatism that has the Government manipulating the means of production to assure the flow of goods and services to ALL the citizens, and assuring the availability to everyone of basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, and medical care. This was accomplished through high taxes on income to finance generous government programs to provide these basics for all. Meanwhile Communism flourished in the U.S.S.R., and Anticommunism became the major organizing principle in Western Europe and the U.S., still determined to preserve Capitalism by moving more and more toward Corporatism. The evolving Corporatism consisted of various kinds of government/corporate partnerships and cooperation. In the U.S., the corporations received governmental favors in the form of subsidies, favorable tax treatment, and direct, profitable business contracts with the government. In return the government received political support, cooperation, and very large political contributions from the Corporations. The end of World War II brought about the Cold War, a stand-off between Communism and Corporatism (some would say Capitalism) that finally led to the collapse of the U.S.S.R., the virtual end of the worldwide Communist movement, and the end of the experiment with Communism. It should be clear that Corporatism in the U.S. is a bipartisan phenomenon, supported by both political parties, but for different reasons and with different objectives in mind. It is appealing to the economic elite who run the corporations, the intellectual elite who theorize about such things, and the mass of citizenry who receive the regulated flow of products and services brought about by government manipulation of the means of production through the Corporations. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Big Business LOVES Big Government for lots of reasons including the following: Under Corporatism Big Government is, of course, in a position to provide Big Favors to Big Business, in return for Big Favors in return, a practice some like to call Corporate Welfareism. A noticeable commonality between Big Business and Big Government is Managerial Bureaucratism, where individuals rule with expertise but little personal responsibility for the results, and with the opportunity to achieve personal wealth and fame by manipulating others, while personally producing nothing. Big Business likes the advantage it has over Small Business in dealing with Big Government, negotiating Big Favors, and being awarded Big Contracts. On the other hand, for Big Government, Big Business is manageable and usually willing to do what it is told---except, of course, in debates that involve the division of the loot. But it is much easier for Big Government to get cooperation from Big Business, than it would be from millions of small businesses, in such matters as vehicle safety devices like air bags, affirmative action, anti-discrimination practices, environmental rules, etc., etc. From the political point of view both Left and Right like Corporatism, but for different reasons. The Left likes Corporatism because it provides wide ranging power over every aspect of life and society; it can be used to further egalitarian, utopian goals like redistribution of income and wealth; while it does nothing to prevent them, as individuals, from accumulating and retaining their own personal wealth. The Right appreciates Corporatism because it allows profits while often sharing costs and risks with Big Government; allows them to strongly influence Big Government policy to their advantage; and it is conducive to stability and avoids costly social and business disruptions (usually). Corporatism has pretty much tamed the business cycle. Some equate current trends in Corporatism to Fascism. Without extreme Nationalism and Totalitarianism it's not Fascism, but some see those elements evolving as well. But for the most part the word Fascism, like the word Racism, has become one of many hyperbolic political epithets in common use in today's political dialogue. Others see great evil in Corporations as huge entities with no conscience and only greed for profits as it's guiding principle, making every Corporation a "psychotic" entity. That view neglects all that corporations do to provide goods and services to customers; jobs, salaries and benefits to employees; as well as returns to the owner/investors. The wealth created by corporations is shared by ALL those groups, as well as with Big Government through taxation. I'm an optimist and I see our country and our world getting better every decade. The tragedy of the Depression of the 30's is gone, probably never to return. The calamity of World War II in the 40's is past, never to return (hopefully); and the stress of the Cold War of the 50's, 60's has been ended; and the stagflation of the 70's is unlikely to occur again. It has been a circumstance that allowed me to raise sons who never had to go to war, unlike virtually any generation before them. Circumstances in Third World countries are gradually improving, but certainly with many serious problems still to solve. But now we have to deal with some new -ism's----Religious Fundamentalism (of more than one stripe) and Terrorism---and the advent of GLOBAL Corporatism, and Environmentalism. There's potential to move in wrong directions, and some believe we have already gone far down some wrong paths. It won't be solved with name-calling, fear, and suspicion---but I think there are enough people of good will and intelligence to see us through these times once again. God, I hope so!! Here are a couple of earlier musings, for anyone interested in checking them out: The Prosperity of the 1990's Competition in Education.  |
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