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Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

A Conservative Case for the Commons

Dusting Off Distributism

Repost cross-posted from On the Commons

In t he early-to-mid-20t h Cent ury t he

July 23, 2014
Jay Walljasper Dist ribut ist s—led by English aut hors G.K.
Chest erton and Hillaire Belloc—took a dim
view of bot h socialism and corporat e
capit alism. As conservat ives t hey did,
however, believe in privat e propert y—so much
t hey t hought it should be “dist ribut ed” as
widely as possible among t he whole
populat ion.

At it s root , t he Dist ribut ist movement sought

a pract ical, communit y-orient ed alt ernat ive to
t he inequalit y of capit alism and t he bureaucracy of socialism. To fulfill t his
vision, Dist ribut ist s advocat ed for family farms, family-run businesses, a ret urn
to craft smanship and communit y self-reliance. When large ent erprises were
inevit able, such as indust rial factories, t hey advocat ed worker-run cooperat ives
to give people a great er share of ownership.

Chest erton not ed, “There is less difference t han many suppose bet ween t he
ideal socialist syst em, in which t he big businesses are run by t he st at e, and t he
present capit alist syst em, in which t he st at e is run by t he big businesses. They
are much nearer to each ot her t han eit her is to my own ideal; of breaking up t he
big businesses into a mult it ude of small businesses.”

Chest erton and Belloc excelled at writ ing essays, but not at organizing a
polit ical movement . Beyond several well-at t ended conferences and a
scat t ering of local project s, Dist ribut ist s never est ablished a successful
course toward achieving t heir ideals. Dist ribut ism was not adopt ed as an
economic syst em in any nat ion, alt hough t he “Green” peasant part ies of Cent ral
Europe in t he 1920s and ‘30s enact ed similar policies to keep people on t he
land.

A full-blown Dist ribut ist

movement never emerged in
t he Unit ed St at es, but it s
ideas were embraced in t he
mid-20t h Cent ury by
influent ial figures from
Catholic Worker founders
Dorot hy Day and Pet er
Maurin to Bishop Fulton
Sheen to historian Garry Wills. Chest erton and Belloc were guided by Cat holic
Social t eachings, especially Pope Leo XIII whose 1891 encyclical Rerum
Novarum embraced social just ice as a core Cat holic mission. But not all
Dist ribut ist s were Cat holic.

The t hemes of Dist ribut ism cont inue to at t ract polit ical act ivist s, social
comment ators and ot hers looking for fresh economic and cult ural direct ions
for our societ y. Ross Dout hat , a conservat ive columnist for t he New York
Times, describes his work as being in t he “Dist ribut ist t radit ion”.

Richard Aleman, editor-in-chief of t he Dist ribut ist Review, believes t he global

economic crisis since 2008 means t hat Dist ribut ism’s message of “more
ownership of t he economy, more part icipat ion of t he poor” is more relevant
t han ever.

“The problem wit h capit alism from a Dist ribut ist perspect ive,” he t ells me, “is
t hat too much ends up t he hands of too few. Most people prefer Main St reet
to Wall St reet . They want communit y. They want to solve problems on t he
local level. There’s a pot ent ial for bot h left and right to be Dist ribut ist ”—a
convict ion he has voiced to conservat ive Cat holic organizat ions as well as
Occupy Wall St reet act ivist s.

Here’s Aleman out line for 21st Cent ury Dist ribut ism: Local, organic food
product ion; Mom and pop businesses; Communit y banking and credit unions;
Microfinance programs so families around t he world can st art small businesses;
Communit y self-reliance; Cooperat ives and worker ownership; Farmers’ market s
and communit y support ed agricult ure (CSAs); Locally based currencies; Craft
and art isan guilds.

[Graphics and links added by GEO]

On t he Commons is licensed under a Creat ive Commons

At t ribut ion-ShareAlike 3.0 Unport ed License.
Jay Walljasper

Jay Walljasper, Senior Fellow at On t he Commons and editor of

OnTheCommons.org, creat ed OTC’s book All That We Share: A Field Guide to
t he Commons. A speaker, communicat ions st rat egist and writ er and editor, he
chronicles stories from around t he world t hat point us toward a more equit able,
sust ainable and enjoyable fut ure. He is aut hor of The Great Neighborhood Book
and a senior associat e at t he urban affairs consort ium Cit iscope. Walljasper
also writ es a column about cit y life for Shareable.net and is a Senior Fellow at
Project for Public Spaces and Augsburg College’s Sabo Cent er for Cit izenship
and Learning. For more of his work, see JayWalljasper.com

beyond capitalism the commons Solidarity Economy Organizing Economic Justice

Commons

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