Corporatism Reconsidered: Howard J. Wiarda’s Legacy

Abstract

This article takes stock of Howard J. Wiarda’s contributions to the concept of corporatism. In 1973, Wiarda published a seminal article in World Politics, titled “Toward a Frame-work for the Study of Political Change in the Iberic-Latin Tradition: The Corporative Model,” that laid out his theory of corporatism in the Latin American context. In it, he argued for a theory of corporatism that focused on the intellectual and cultural roots of the concept. He argued that corporatism provided a more historically grounded framework for understanding Latin American political change than modernization theory. This essay asks: In what ways did Wiarda lay claim to a distinctive Latin American variety of corporatism? What implications did this have for an understanding of Latin American politics? Finally, how have his claims about corporatism held up over time? Keywords: corporatism, neo-corporatism, Latin America, Howard J. Wiarda, political culture