The Fascist's Facial: A Collectivist, Distributist and Anti-Capitalist E-Zine
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Courtesy of Wikipedia 

Collectivism is a term used to describe any moral, political, or social outlook, that emphasizes the interdependence of every human in some collective group and the priority of group goals over individual goals. Collectivists focus on community and society, and seek to give priority to group rights over individual rights.

The philosophical underpinnings of collectivism are for some related to holism or organicism the view that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts/pieces. This form of collectivism is often referred to as corporatism. Specifically, a society as a whole can be seen as having more meaning or value than the separate individuals that make up that society.

 

Although this definition seems negative, from a purely economic perspective, Collectivism is preferable to that of Capitalism.  This is on the grounds that a.) the means of production is fairly judged and adequately compensated by a civic-oriented body, not a capitalistic and selfishly greedy board of directors.  And, b.) career opportunities are determined not by capitalistic needs, but social and individual ones.

Distributism, also known as distributionism and distributivism, is a third-way economic philosophy formulated by such as Catholic thinkers G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Bellocto apply the principles of Catholic Social Teaching articulated by the Roman Catholic Church, especially inPope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum and more expansively explained by Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quadragesimo Anno According to distributism, the ownership of the means of production should be spread as widely as possible among the general populace, rather than being centralized under the control of the state (state socialism) or a few large businesses or wealthy private individuals (plutarchic capitalism). A summary of distributism is found in Chesterton's statement: "Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists."

Essentially, distributism distinguishes itself by its distribution of property (not to be confused with redistribution of capital that would be carried out by most socialist plans of governance). While socialism allows no individuals to own productive property (it all being under state, community, or workers' control), and capitalism allows only a few to own it, distributism itself seeks to ensure that most people will become owners of productive property. As Hilaire Belloc stated, the distributive state (that is, the state which has implemented distributism) contains "an agglomeration of families of varying wealth, but by far the greater number of owners of the means of production." This broader distribution does not extend to all property, but only to productive property; that is, that property which produces wealth, namely, the things needed for man to survive. It includes land, tools, etc.

Distributism has often been described as a third way of economic order opposing both socialism and capitalism. Some have seen it more as an aspiration, which has been successfully realised in the short term by commitment to the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity (these being built into financially independent local co-operatives and family owned, small businesses), though proponents also cite such periods as the Middle Ages as examples of the historical long-term viability of distributism.

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