Începutul experimentului corporatist în România: corporațiile în perioada 1902-1914.

Corporatism was portrayed in the interwar period as a third way, an alternative to both capitalism and socialism. Between the two world wars, the new organizational model was widely debated by theorists, while, at different times, some countries adopted aspects of corporatism. However, the beginnings of this model can be traced back to the late Belle Époque period, a case in point being the corporatist experiment in Romania which began in 1902. Emerging as a reaction to the problems caused by the liberalization of labor legislation, the fear of socialism or the emergence of nationalism, both among the political elite and the tradesmen, the new workers' organizations were set up in almost all the towns of the Old Kingdom, as well as in some larger rural settlements. Initially seen as a solution to the problems that some workers faced, the way the corporations operated came to be criticized by politicians and a part of the working class, while giving socialists an opportunity to condemn the existing social order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]