Changing of the guard: trends in corporatist arrangements in 42 highly industrialized societies from 1960 to 2010

Corporatism is an important concept in comparative research. However, crucial questions about trends of corporatism and its impact cannot be tested because time-variant indexes are out of date or cover only a small sample of countries. In this study, a corporatism index is developed and applied to 42 countries on an annual basis from 1960 to 2010. The application of this index demonstrates that there is no decline of corporatism over the past five decades. However, the model states - above all Sweden - reduced corporatist arrangements. In contrast, other countries, such as in the Benelux region, increased their degree of corporatism and new corporatist states like Slovenia and South Africa emerged. The index developed in this article may be a helpful tool for many scholars in the fields of political economy and macro-comparative politics. It makes a dynamic analysis concerning the status of corporatism as dependent and independent variable possible.