Governing modern society: The business-corporatist representation in the project of the british joint industrial councils during the inter-war years

Abstract

The article explores the intellectual debate for a corporatist institutional reorganisation occurred in Great Britain during the last years of the Great War. After analysing various projects prompt up between 1915-1916, the essay focuses on the emergence of the Reconstruction Committee, especially investigating the final report of the Sub-Committee for the Study of the Relations between Employers and Employed, chaired by John H. Whitley, for the institution of the Joint Industrial Councils. Claiming the necessity of building a harmoniously ordered society in order to overcome the social conflict and increase economic efficiency, the sub-commission proposed these councils as the first step towards a corporatist representation of the organised interests, envisaged to promote their active participation in the decision-making process.