Technocracy, Corporatism, and the Development of ‘Economic Parliaments’ in Interwar Europe

In Interwar Europe corporatism was mainly used to refer to the comprehensive organization of political society seeking to replace liberal democracy with an anti-individualist system of representation. In fact, in many cases corporatist, or ‘economic parliaments’, either co-existed with and assisted parliaments or replaced them with a new type of legislature with consultative functions, which provided the government with technical assistance. The most influential theorist of Quadragesimo Anno, the Jesuit Heirich Pesch, did mention the ‘economic parliament’ as a ‘central clearing house’ of his organic view. In 1937 Karl Loewenstein saw ‘this romantic concept of organic representation’, in new legislatures trying to be a ‘true mirror of the social forces of the nation and a genuine replica of its economic structure’. However, the role of corporatist bodies in dictatorships was certainly much less romantic. The chapter explores the processes of corporatist institutional reform, both under democracy and dictatorship, in interwar Europe and its ideological legitimation.