ABSTRACT
Now corporatism has a rather bad name as a result of its association with some extremely unpleasant political regimes—fascist before the second world war and authoritarian after it. The direction of attention to real wages is on the credit side of corporatism's ledger. The background to the analyses of the corporatism is the apparently superior economic performance during the 1970s of a number of countries that have been identified as having neocorporatist institutions. The direction of attention to real wages is on the credit side of corporatism's ledger. Reducing the stakes in any particular negotiation makes possible settlements that embody a concern with the long run. Individual workers, who have to confront the day-to-day problems of making a living, are unlikely to put a great deal of stress on the long run. In appraising the economic performance of alternative institutional arrangements it is hard to avoid making some judgment about the performance of markets.
