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Corporatism, crisis and contention in Sweden and Korea during the 1990s

journal contribution
posted on 2012-08-01, 00:00 authored by Andrew VandenbergAndrew Vandenberg, David HundtDavid Hundt
Debate has long surrounded corporatism’s depictions of power and the state, and the rise of neoliberalism has raised even more doubts about corporatism as an analytical construct. Faltering growth and rising unemployment in Sweden and Korea after financial crises in the 1990s seemed to confirm neoliberal expectations that all varieties of corporatism (state/authoritarian and societal/democratic) are doomed to decline, and that corporatism will converge on liberalism. Closer examination of the 1990s crises suggests that Swedish and Korean institutions have transformed rather than collapsed. Corporatist institutions have been transformed by ideas about networks and governance, interaction between national and international institutions and shifting alliances among export-oriented and competition-shielded employers, private and public sector unions and citizen networks. This article argues that the ‘dynamics of contention’ can explain how these new ideas and alliances transformed regimes in Sweden and Korea and as such constitute an alternative to corporatism as an analytical construct.

History

Journal

Economic and industrial democracy

Volume

33

Issue

3

Pagination

463 - 484

Publisher

Sage Publications

Location

London, England

ISSN

0143-831X

eISSN

1461-7099

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2011, The Authors