Beyond Corporate Liberalism

Abstract

The theory of corporate liberalism has emerged as a key paradigm for critical analyses of American institutions. The theory emerged from analyses of the Progressive Era and of the Kennedy-Johnson years. The shift away from liberalism at the national political level since 1969 has resulted in a number of efforts to revise the theory of corporate liberalism. One argument is that the shift was caused by the depth of the economic crisis of United States capitalism. However, the theory suggests that corporate liberals would respond to crisis by increased use of the state to rationalize the economy. Yet there is good reason to believe that analysts who follow this logic have greatly exaggerated corporate support for some type of national economic planning, which reflects a fundamental weakness in the theory.