Corporatism and hierarchy

db0 draws a comparison between corporatism and Stalinism. I think he's mistaken on a number of points.

First of all, there's a lot of confusion, even within the socialist/communist world, between the economic foundation of a society and its political superstructure. Even Marx acknowledged that these two components of a society have a large degree of independence from each other. While some economic foundations might be incompatible with some political superstructures, it is equally the case that a particular economic foundation does not entail one particular superstructure.

People concentrate too much, I think, on the details of the formal structures of organizations. But the key question, in my opinion, is the underlying balance of power, and how well the structure is suited to and maintains that balance of power.

db0 observes that corporations, like Stalinist communism, are top-down and hierarchical. However, merely having a hierarchical organization does not necessarily mean that those at the top of the hierarchy have all the power and those at the bottom have none. (Of course, such an imbalance is, however, possible.)

In a capitalist corporation, those at the bottom have — or can have — the power to quit, the power to strike, and the power to slack. Those at the top need not only the worker's work but also their more-or-less willing cooperation: a cooperative worker produces more surplus value than one mindlessly obeying out of fear of starvation.

When you have proper unionization and the effective freedom to quit (both of which have been effectively realized in practice), the power of the workers balances the power of management to the benefit of both. The problem with capitalism is not that it employs hierarchical management, but rather that it tends to destabilize this balance of power, especially when the economy is static or contracting.

Those interested in socialist political systems must focus on restoring the balance of power between competing interests that is being systematically eroded by capitalists — and there is little evidence that President-elect Obama intends to restore that balance — and take steps to preserve that balance. Preserve the balance; the fine details of decision making will evolve on their own.