Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Pluralism and Corporatism America in Perspective: Special Topic Lecture Chapter 11: Interest Groups Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy Fourteenth Edition
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Pluralism Politics is mainly a competition among groups, each one pressing for its own preferred policies. Decentralized Process: –Coalitions form for individual policies. –Groups use their resources to influence decision- makers. “Distributed Inequality”: –Everyone has some kind of resource. –There is no universal resource. –No one has a monopoly on a resource.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Pluralism “Minorities Rule” –There is no majority: many centers of power and many diverse, competing groups. –No one group is dominant, and no group wins or loses all the time.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Elitism Societies are divided along class lines and an upper-class elite rules, regardless of the formal niceties of governmental organization. –Major sources of power are institutions: government, corporations, military. –“The Power Elite”: Elite power is strengthened by a system of interlocking directorates of these corporations and other institutions.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Elitism vs. Pluralism Collective action advantages of corporations. Pluralism is characteristic of lower levels of power but not the higher ones. –Pluralism, Yale University, and New Haven, Connecticut.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Hyperpluralism Interest groups have become too powerful as the government tries to serve every interest. –Subgovernments: networks that exercise a great deal of control over specific policy areas. –Policies become confusing and contradictory because the government tries to please all the groups.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Hyperpluralism vs. Pluralism “Public” interest is lost in the struggle among “special” interests. –Interest groups seek to maintain policies and programs that benefit themselves. –Interest groups continue to pressure government to do more things expanding the size of government and passing the bill to taxpayers.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Corporatism Definition –The government and peak associations of businesses and labor negotiate settlement of large areas of economic activity and policy.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Elements of Corporatism Ideology of social partnership Relatively centralized and concentrated system of interest groups (peak associations) Voluntary continuous political bargaining
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. German Corporatism Attitudes that promote compromise. Codetermination and work councils to equalize capital and labor. Business-government links through concentration of business ownership. Industry negotiation through peak associations with the government as facilitator.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Why Corporatism? Advantages –Stability and Equality Disadvantages –Inflexibility and Oppression Democracy?
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Corporatism in the EU Corporatism influences policy at the national level but not the EU. Why? –Lack of transnational organization of labor. –Emphasis on industry-specific policy. –Intergovernmentalism thwarts efforts to create supranational interests.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman. Globalization & Corporatism Globalization may undermine corporatism: –Decline in Keynesian role of the government. –More diverse social structures. –Market instability and volatility. Globalization may support corporatism –Competition makes production stability even more critical.