Corporatist UK

WI the UK was run under a corporatist system?

I consider this to mean a system whereby all the major policy decisions and funcitons of state are decided upon by (relative) consensus by the government in alliance with peak institutions representative of various vested interests in society.

I don't mean here a system whereby interests are able to lobby politicians via donations, etc, etc (which is basically the system OTL), but one whereby the various interests are represented by various formal consultatives committees.

The one that springs to mind is of course workplace relations with employer organisations and unions working out nationwide agreements with the government. However any major sector with two opposing sides can be organised in this way.

What POD would be required for this to occur? I would like to avoid if possible the scenario of Oswald Moseley as PM and him instituting corporatism (as I think has already been done in another thread); I would prefer such a system to evolve without facism and through democratic processes.
 
I would prefer such a system to evolve without facism and through democratic processes.

Mosley did do it through the democratic process in 'a Greater Britain'...

It's an interesting topic, but, like I said before, I really think you would need a very very early POD to make this convincing.
 
Mosley did do it through the democratic process in 'a Greater Britain'...

It's an interesting topic, but, like I said before, I really think you would need a very very early POD to make this convincing.

Would it be possible for Labour in 45-51 to introduce a corporatist system of industrial relations?

One of the preconditions will be the formation of a tight-knit hierachical trade union culture (Australia which is the English speaking nation with probably the most successful flirtation with corporatism has a highly centralised industrial relations system).

One of the major problems UK unions always had was the inability of the union elite to control and discipline militant shop stewards. Is it plausible for UK unions to be able to develop a structure whereby the union elite has strong control over local operations?

Also you would need to convince UK business to go along with this, which is problematic given the suspicion in British culture of 'cartel-like' business structures. How to change this?
 
Would it be possible for Labour in 45-51 to introduce a corporatist system of industrial relations?

Possible is the sense that they could do it if they wanted to, but otherwise probably ASB. There simply wasn't any space for it in Labour thinking in that period, because they thought that nationalisation would bring all they desired in terms of industrial policy. That was a horrendously flawed view, both economically and in terms of Socialism, but that was pretty much the overriding view at the time.

Like I said before, you are probably looking at a totally alternative genesis for both the Labour Party and the Trades Unions. By 1945 they were both just too settled for any major change.
 

HueyLong

Banned
I was considering something like this in Black Jack's 20s.

In that TL, it was going to be the post-war reaction to a quasi-Fascist system.
 
Possible is the sense that they could do it if they wanted to, but otherwise probably ASB. There simply wasn't any space for it in Labour thinking in that period, because they thought that nationalisation would bring all they desired in terms of industrial policy. That was a horrendously flawed view, both economically and in terms of Socialism, but that was pretty much the overriding view at the time.

Like I said before, you are probably looking at a totally alternative genesis for both the Labour Party and the Trades Unions. By 1945 they were both just too settled for any major change.


I think you definitely need to have a different set-up regarding the trade unions and industrial relation even before such a system is implemented. Perhaps British members could correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that one of the features of UK trade unions is the general lack of control the union elite has over rank-and-file members? This needs to change to a system where the leaders of each union have the ability to exert strong control over its members and the TUC has strong control over the union elites. Peak business bodies would have similar powers over individual businesses, especially large corporations. The question is such a system plausible in UK poltical culture and if so how would it come about?

I suggest a system similar to that developed in Australia in the early 1900's. The indivdual circumstances would vary but it would be similar. A system of govt supported industrial arbitration could be established, basically an industrial relations court. Disputes would be brought before a judge who would make final binding decisions that unions and employers would be made to follow.

This sort of system would get both unions and business used to the notion of national-level binding decisions regarding industrial relations with a centralised system. This could make them more amenable to corporatism later on.

What are people's thougts on this?
 
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