The idea of corporatism has different uses. The first meaning mentioned in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) refers to the doctrine that promotes state intervention to resolve conflicts that occur in the field of work, appealing to the development of corporations that bring together workers and employers..
In this framework, corporatism is a type of socioeconomic organization that is based on the planned economy and syndicalism. According to this doctrine, business, professional and trade union associations must unite through corporations that are under the orbit of the State.
Political activity, in corporatism, is carried out by union representatives. In this way, a pyramidal structure is created where power is exercised vertically.
Through corporatism, society is organized according to associations (corporations) that represent the specific interests of a group. The intervention of the State in these corporations, according to the doctrine, allows conflicts to be neutralized. It should be noted that corporations may have regulatory powers and be erected as the obligatory way of political representation of their members.
It is necessary to point out that the origins of corporatism are very remote, so much so that we can find some examples in Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. Its features are also perceived in some religions, such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Confucianism.
If we situate ourselves in the corporatism that can be associated with social relations, we face the one based on kinship. This type of corporatism focuses on the identification of ethnicity according to a division into families and clans, a phenomenon that has manifested itself very frequently in the history of Latin America, Asia and Africa.
We have, on the other hand, modern corporatism, which is believed to have been promoted in large part by the Confucian societies of Southeast and East Asia, which were based on clans, families and groups. In Chinese society we also find predominant elements of clan corporatism, since family relations are governed by legal norms. Islamic society is also often based on tribes or clans that bring corporatism to the community.
Regarding the presence of this concept in the religious and spiritual realm, we can say that from the New Testament we find traces of Christian corporatism, specifically in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, in which Paul of Tarsus expresses himself organically with regarding society and politics, implying that the entire community and its components are a whole that is functionally related, in the same way as the different parts of the human body.
Confucianism, also known as Confucianism, is the group of moral and religious doctrines preached by the followers and disciples of the Chinese thinker Confucius after his death. Regarding corporatism, he emphasizes it in the development of the family and the community through solidarity and harmony.
We also find social concepts that refer to corporatism in Hinduism, such as the importance of issues such as consensus, harmony and the feeling of community.
Corporatism, on the other hand, is the denomination that receives the attitude or posture that a sector assumes to defend in a clear and unconditional way the interests of its members. If the journalists of a country always justify the conduct of those who exercise this profession, beyond their errors and faults, one could speak of the corporatism that exists in journalism. The corporatism of soccer players, on the other hand, can lead to these athletes not accepting criticism from people who have not played at a professional level.