ICS Working Papers Nº2/2016

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ICS WORKING PAPERS 2016
experts, political activists and former union leaders it was not a straight adaptation of the
charters published in these countries. The Catholic Church hierarchy, with a more nuanced
reaction than its unions, and Catholic Action both endorsed the charter. In addition to the
establishment of compulsory union membership and the outlawing of strikes, the charter
organized the world of work in 29 ‘professional families’. The report addressed to Marshal
Pétain introducing the law, stressed its ambiguities, presenting it as a kind of framework law
that would organize the future of labour relations in France, rather than as a guide to
determine the course of their development; nevertheless, the purpose of the charter was
clear: ‘the creation of future corporations that are the great hopes for France’s future’
The efforts of Hubert Lagardelle, a former syndicalist and head of the Ministry of Labour in
1942 and 1943, to put in place the centrepiece of the charter – single unions or professional
social committees – had limited results, with the single unions struggling to see the light of
day and the first professional social committee not inaugurated until 1943 In the end,
only the company social committees were created as both managers and entrepreneurs
identified in them a means of institutionalizing forced class collaboration.
The creation of the national council (Conseil National) as a consultative chamber may have
been the embryo of a Vichy corporatist chamber, but it was short-lived and, as in many other
cases, was unable to articulate social corporatism as functional representation. The
context of its creation was also complex and generated tensions between Pétain and other
groups within the Vichy elite. With 213 members, this consultative chamber included 49
deputies, 28 senators and 136 representatives of social, economic and cultural interests.
It only operated between 1941 and 1942, introducing ‘advisory opinions’ and constitutional
projects. The way in which the national council operated was not too different from the
Portuguese New State’s corporatist chamber. There were no plenary sessions, as it operated
only through commissions, and its debates were private. In some constitutional projects
discussed by the national council, there was a concern for including corporations in a future
constitution, by reflecting its integration in representative-consultative institutions, but they
never saw the light of day. At the beginning of 1944 Pétain approved a constitutional project
to introduce a compromise between liberal and corporatist representation that never came
into force, defining a parliament elected by individual suffrage (the Chamber of
Representatives) and a senate with representatives of the corporatist institutions and
members of the ‘country’s elite’, in both cases nominated by the head of state. The remaining
250 members had to be elected via colleges that incorporated departmental councillors and
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