30 SITUATING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
collective bargaining at work, but also because it was seen as the way to support
the growth of democracy in the political sphere. Encouraging the growth of
independent trade unions was seen as an essential step to the introduction of
plural political parties, in particular labour parties, able to balance the power
of the militarist, business-related regimes that had supported the German and
Japanese axis in the Second World War. The German Nazi regime represented
the next political ideology to be discussed, that of corporatism.
Corporatism is a variant of pluralism that puts great emphasis on the role
of national government. In contrast to the liberal preference for as little state
intervention as possible in economic issues, the corporatist view sees that it is a
prime duty of the nation state, through its government, to play an active role in
regulating the economy and its related employment relations. State interven-
tion is seen as the way to ensure that the plural interests in society are brought
into accommodation for the benefit of all. Separate interests in the economy
must be recognized and, indeed encouraged to organize, so that these interests
can be represented and conflicts resolved in a mutual partnership under the
guiding hand of government, which represents a higher order of social interest.
The role of the state is therefore key, and instead of the neutral ‘umpire’ role
envisaged under liberal collectivism, it is given centre stage. However there
are variants of corporatist intervention. In extreme corporatist cases, the state
prescribes the nature of the collective trade union or employer bodies allowed,
and the type of accommodation permitted. In the German and Italian Nazi
and Mussolini state socialist regimes, the incorporated trade unions were
required to be active partners in supporting the political party agendas, oper-
ating under strict controls, like the trade unions allowed under communist
regimes—the main difference between communism and corporatism in this
context being whether the state had taken ownership control of the production
units in the economy.
Pure corporatist or communist ideologies have not survived to remain as
relevant to the discussion of the ethics of HRM in modern economies. How-
ever neo-corporatism is still important. It can be defined as a milder form of
state intervention, in which governments work with employee and employer
representatives in the regulation of such issues as health and safety, and train-
ing. Where a liberal collectivist state will seek to limit state intervention to pro-
viding a ‘safety net’ for the most vulnerable members of the workforce, or act-
ing as a neutral umpire in the context of collective negotiations, or individual
grievances at work, a neo-corporatist state will play a more active role. Under
neo-corporatism, government acts to regulate economic and employment
issues, with the involvement and assistance of representatives of the conflicting
economic parties, usually unions and employer associations. Neo-corporatist
policies can be seen in the legislation establishing the works councils and
employee representation on company boards of mainland Europe. Early