Page 191 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Unit 10: George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

They also provided for the development and recognition of particular skills, abilities, and talents. Notes
People also learnt how to cooperate, and gain by such cooperation. Membership entailed acceptance
of a code of conduct which inculcated a sense of discipline. It allowed for the growth of pride and
integrity, giving the individual dignity, second only to the family.
Another important aspect of corporatism was its welfare functions for the underprivileged. The
state, in Hegel’s theory, was not a welfare state nor was Hegel an advocate of a planned economy.
But he was opposed to social indifference to poverty and the idea that people should fend for
themselves. With concern for social stability, he suggested that a safety net be provided by the
corporation for all those who suffered in the market. However, he recommended foreign markets
and thought that domestic problems could be solved by external involvement. For him, society
consisted of three classes : the agricultural, governmental and business class. The last one
incorporated all craftsmen and producers.
The corporation also played the role of a mediator between the state and civil society by facilitating
political representation for its members. Like other political thinkers of his time, Hegel opposed
universal franchise, arguing that it would lead to fragmentation and apathy. But he was also
conscious of the need for representation, and preferred corporate representation in the legislative
assemblies or states. The representation was not geographical but interest-based. Participation in
the political process would protect interests better. Hegel’s idea was very similar to Burke’s theory
of representing interests. For Hegel, it was a kind of functional representation leading to class
cooperation and harmony. This political recognition was essential to prevent people from forming
an organized group of disgruntled people against the state.
The consideration behind the abolition of Corporations in recent times is that the
individual should fend for himself. But we may grant this and still hold that corporation
membership does not alter a man’s obligation to earn his living. Under modern political
conditions, the citizens have only a restricted share in the public business of the state,
yet it is essential to provide men—ethical entities—with work of a public character
over and above their private business. This work of a public character, which the
modern state does not always provide, is found in the Corporation (Hegel ibid : 278).
In the twentieth century, corporatism was looked upon with suspicion because of Italian Fascism,
and also because military and authoritarian rulers of South America had used this term in the
context of total governmental control and direction of business enterprises and labour movements
to secure unity, discipline, order, efficiency and to crush any opposition. It was supposed to create
a state-supported consensus between different and even conflicting social groups, by controlling
market competition. Hegel’s corporatism was very different from this. It was more akin to the idea
of liberal corporatism, meaning self-regulation by quasi-autonomous social groups within the
ambit of constitutional government. It was still not democratic, as by preferring organized groups
and elite, it would negate the representational process.
State
For Hegel, the state represented universal altruism. It synthesized dialectically the elements within
the family and civil society. As in the case of the family, the state functioned in a manner that the
interests of everyone were furthered and enhanced. It represented the universal tendencies within
civil society, thus giving rise to the notion of citizenship. The state had “its reality in the particular
self-consciousness raised to the place of the universal”. The state was “absolutely rational” and
had “substantive will” for realizing itself through history, and was therefore eternal. “This
substantive unity is its own motive and absolute end. In this end freedom attains its highest right.
This end has the highest right over the individual, whose highest duty in turn is to be a member
of the state”.

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