Corporatism was an economic model drawn mostly from the inspiration of the Catholic social teachings of Pope Leo XIII, one of the most prolific papal writers and teachers the Church has ever had. It is an unfortunate fact that the ignorant efforts to simplify everything on the part of the media has caused corporatism to be associated with fascism and fascism to be associated with Nazism. Corporatist systems were used to varying degrees in Dollfuss' Austria, Mussolini's Italy, Franco's Spain and to a larger extent in Salazar's Portugal. All too often, post-World War II histories and commentators have lumped all these together (quite ridiculously) with the Nazis when, in fact, they had very little in common, in fact the Nazis overthrew the corporatist government of Austria to bring about the union with Germany. Because of this common misconception, many in the USA who opposed the NIRA labelled it as a step of the FDR administration toward fascism.
The National Industrial Recovery Act provided for the establishment of the National Recovery Administration which was set up by President Roosevelt in 1933. The function of the NRA was to bring together government, business, labor and public representatives to write and enforce codes of fair competition for businesses and industry as well as setting standards for product quality, workers salaries and prices. President Roosevelt appointed former general Hugh S. Johnson to be head of the NRA. Because of his efforts with the NRA to produce fair trade codes Johnson was named TIME magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1933. The most visible action of the NRA was the "Blue Eagle" program. Businesses which followed the codes for quality and worker treatment set by the NRA were allowed to display the NRA Blue Eagle in their advertisements and at their place of business, usually with a flag or a poster in the window. The public was encouraged to do business with those who were NRA compliant and in doing so help to support the economic recovery by rewarding those businesses who treated their workers fairly and met high standards in production.
What is very interesting about the NRA is that such a corporatist institution was advanced by someone like FDR who is usually considered America's first socialist president. However, it would be a mistake to think that everyone at the White House and the NRA were one, big, happy family. General Johnson, though he later oversaw the WPA, did not always see eye-to-eye with the President and was a member of the America First Committee which opposed Roosevelt's provokation of Japan and moves toward involvement in World War II.
For Americans, the cooperation of business, labor and government was quite novel. Most American workers loved the new administration which established a minimum wage, maximum labor hours and gave more rights to employees. The NRA also helped industry and considerably aided the unemployment problem. Gerald Swope, head of General Electric, was one of the first champions of the NRA and many business leaders were very supportive due to the NRA's support of cartels and public works projects. However, the NRA was not destined to last very long. The National Industrial Recovery Act was overturned on May 27, 1935 when the Supreme Court declared the act to be unconstitutional with their decision in the case of A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. vs the United States, also known as the "sick chicken" case. The high court ruled that the NIRA infringed on the power of the states and gave legislative power to the president. After the decision President Roosevelt abolished the National Recovery Administration which had been under the leadership of Donald R. Richberg since 1934.
So, in the end, was the NRA an attempt at American fascism? In the first place, the general public really has to get over their uninformed view of fascism. American Catholic educator Anne W. Carroll described it in this way: "Fascism in itself is neither good nor evil. Everything depends on the man who comes to power. A fascist government can be pro-Christian. Portugal was ruled wisely by a fascist government led by Antonio Salazar from 1932 until he died in 1971. In Romania, the fascist and deeply Christian Legion of the Archangel Michael, which required its members to be willing to die for Christ, provided strong opposition to liberalism and Communism." The NRA was nothing like what was happening in most fascist countries though as it was an entirely voluntary program. However, General Johnson did have a vision for the NRA which might have seemed more facsist to some, with dreams of a national patriotic movement to restore jobs and the economy with large rallies and torchlight parades. The NRA never became anything like that, but just because it was a form of corporatism does not make it fascist and just because something is labelled as being fascist, does not automatically make it a bad thing.
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