Corporate nationalism

National capitalism or corporate nationalism is a political and economic philosophy that expects private enterprise to work mainly towards the national good, rather than solely for profit maximization. In a quid-pro-quo, national policies are expected to favor the large corporations, whose representatives are present in the earliest stages of drawing up legislation. Corporate policies and national ones are seen to coincide.

In such a system, corporations are expected to be profitable, but always in a manner not deemed detrimental to the national good. For example, moving the company to another country would be disapproved of if it were to put workers out of their jobs and raise the unemployment level of the nation, even if it were to cut costs for the company.

By contrast, a more free trade oriented philosophy would generally hold that businesses should do whatever, within reasonable legal and other bounds, to cut costs and be more profitable, and the national economy will benefit in the long run anyway. As of 2004, this approach generally dominated economic policy making in the West.

In internal affairs, corporate nationalism assigns some roles traditionally in local government's purlieu to corporate entities, or for neutral not-for-profit corporations supported with corporate funds. Such "public/private" ventures have been successful in some areas, like the renovation and maintenance of Central Park in New York City, and have been controversial in other areas, such as public schools. "Privatization" has become the umbrella term for such transfers of responsibility.

Ideas proposed by national capitalism were adopted by many governments since the Industrial Revolution, including the early 20th century Socialist and Fascist governments in Europe and the development-oriented governments in Latin America and Asia after World War II. More generally, the spirit of national capitalism can be seen in any discussion of suboptimality of corporate decision-making for the cause of the greater national well-being, or simply in the "privatization" of a local drinking-water plant.

Corporatization is a major aspect of corporate nationalism, a political movement begun under the autocratic rule of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French from 1852 and refined in Italy under Benito Mussolini from 1922.