You are wrong. The "corporations" of Estado Novo were not commercial corporations like Monsanto, or P&G. The corporations in corporatism are understood to be r

You are wrong. The "corporations" of Estado Novo were not commercial corporations like Monsanto, or P&G. The corporations in corporatism are understood to be representatives of the broad professional groups. There was an assembly - Câmara Corporativa - that was a representative and consultive body that had no decision power but that the National Assembly - the legislative body - had to consult for all the laws that they'd propose. It was actually a good idea in my opinion. It's a much more transparent way of having the economical, social, syndical, etc "interest groups" or "corporations" participate in the political decision process. A lot better than US style lobbying, as it was completely public and not dependent on money. Besides, that way, there would always be technical and real-world advice for every law passed. From wikipedia: Corporatism (also known as corporativism[1]) is the socio-political organization of a society by major interest groups, or corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labour, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common interests http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism EDIT: added reference to Wikipedia.