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POD: German sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies adds a third group, (what's german word that starts with g and/or ends with schaft and is a synonym of community and society?), to what is in OTL his book "Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft". This third section of his book, depicting the kind of hybrid social model most likely to be found in reality as opposed to the two platonic types of "community" and "society" help turn the book from ostentatiously theoretical and academic to something with more appeal to practical application. When published in 1887, it is widely read not only by the sociological community but by political thinkers and the greater intellectual community as a whole.

This book is read by David B. Hill, the Democratic governor of New York subsequent to Grover Cleveland, from 1885 to 1891. The idea of corporatism, of the government cooperating with private organizations, appeals to his mix of Jeffersonian and populist values as well as his experience as a Tammany Hall political machinist.

Using these principles both privately and publicly, Hill successfully unites a large enough coalition of protectionists, silverite, and other anti-Cleveland Democrats to get the nomination in 1892 (which he did not get in our world, because his coalition wasn't large enough).

Hill's campaign appeals to both populist Republicans (who vote for him rather than third party Populist James Weaver, as they did in OTL) and those who feel that regulatory measures such as the Interstate Commerce Commission and Sherman Antitrust Act have not done enough to prevent rising class struggle and economic instability. He wins the election over Republican incumbent Benjamin Harrison.

The Panic of 1893 gives President Hill a chance to show whether or not his corporatist platform can deal with both the economic depression and conflict between labor and capital that has been at the forefront of people's minds since the Great Rail Strike of '77, and much more recently by the '92 Homestead Strike.

In '94 Greenbacker (grangers/agarian populists tied into the inflationary populist movement of the silverites) James Coxey and his followers march to Washington. Coxey's Army captures the public's attention and the whole nation looks to the untested President to see how he will respond. Thus far protectionist and inflationary measures enacted by Hill have not done much to make people feel like the Panic is over. However his handling of Coxey's Army gains him instant support (and infamy in some circles) as he shakes the popular leader's hand and forms an informal partnership with Coxey's group (which is properly known as the Commonwealth in Christ).

This is seen by later historians as a dress-rehearsal for a much bigger event, the Pullman Strike later that year, in which the American Railway Union led by Eugene Debs shuts down all the rail traffic going West of Chicago.

Once again Hill intervenes, bringing Debs and the companies to the table with a handpicked team of negotiators and officials who later form the nexus of the Corporate Bureau.


From there, the basic premise is that Hill's presidency shifts the spectrum of American politics to the point where "Tonniesm" (as a name for the particular brand of American corporatism) becomes the official ideology. The conflict between using the government to prop up collaborators in order to co-opt private industry and organized labor/agriculture (embodied by the Synarchist faction) and the orthodox Tonniests would ostensibly shape domestic politics in the the first phase of the US as a corporate state.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Criticism? Alternate proposals?
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