Gone with the Wind? The Transformations of Corporatism in Europe

In the 1960s, the Norwegian political scientist Stein Rokkan described the functioning of the political system in his country in a manner that stood in sharp contrast with textbook descriptions of modern democracies at the time. In Norway , Rokkan argued, the most important decisions in economic policy were not taken in parliament or within political parties but at bargaining tables gathering the government, trade union leaders, farmers, fishermen, smallholders and business organisations. In these bargaining rounds which “had come to mean more in the lives of rank-and-file citizens than formal elections”, decisions were not taken by majority rule but through “complex considerations of short-term advantages in alternative lines of compromises” (Rokkan 1966: 106).

in many ways, stein rokkan 's early description of the “corporate” sphere of decision-making functioning alongside the “mass-democratic” sphere would pave the way for a whole strand of research seeking to understand how collective decisions were made outside “official” chan nels of democratic representation, such as elections and parliaments. not only in norway , but in many other countries, stabilised patterns of interaction between private organised interests and public authorities played an essential role in social regulation, from the setting of wages to the management of health systems, pension schemes and economic policy.