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To: Psalm 144
Willard is a Corporatist.

I'd like to point out that this term has a specific meaning which usually gets lost in modern use of the word.

Today we tend to think of it as meaning government by business coporations. But that's not what it means.

Corporatism was a branch of government theory in the late 19th and early 20th that was generally conservative (in the European sense) in origin. It was heavily promoted by the Catholic Church.

It referred to government by "corporations," which is derived from Latin for body and did not mean business corporations, but rather to groups of people organized more or less by occupation rather than locality. Labor unions, farmer's groups, business groups, professional organizations, etc.

It was an attempt to reject both socialism and its theory of class conflict and the American idea of representative democracy. A "Third Way." It was later adopted in theory by various fascists, especially Mussolini, but not much put into actual practice by them.

When corporatism started, the modern business corporation, which has become so dominant, played no such powerful role in society. So when the term is used today it is usually misused to mean government dominated by big business.

I'm just proposing the term be used carefully and properly, rather than sloppily to mean anything other than a government hostile to business.

31 posted on 06/16/2012 6:43:28 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Sherman Logan

“I’m just proposing the term be used carefully and properly, rather than sloppily to mean anything other than a government hostile to business.”

All variations are archaic, inefficient, and minimize the role and freedom of the individual as opposed to some group or other. All variations degenerate into crony capitalism at the very best. Something like it worked very well for a very long time in the later Roman republic and empire, but that was not a very happy place or time for most people, and the ‘yeoman class’ was effectively non-existent or even allowed to rise. Corporatism can work after a fashion, but is very much less than traditional American liberties and is definitely at odds with the Constitution.


123 posted on 06/16/2012 5:37:01 PM PDT by Psalm 144 ("I'm not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support. I am who I am." - Willard M Romney)
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