Knowra Distributism Distributism Distributism is an economic philosophy that favors broad ownership of productive property, especially by families and small businesses, over concentrated state or corporate control.
Private property : A legal right to possess, use, control, and transfer resources. Distributism seeks to spread ownership of productive property rather than abolish private property.
Rerum novarum : Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical on labor, property, and the social responsibilities of capital and government. Its defense of private property and critique of worker exploitation helped shape distributist arguments.
Worker cooperative : A business owned and democratically governed by its workers. It gives workers direct ownership and control of an enterprise.
Mondragon Corporation : A federation of worker cooperatives founded in the Basque region of Spain in 1956. Its network of worker-owned firms demonstrates large-scale cooperative ownership.
Economic democracy : The extension of democratic participation and control to economic decisions and institutions. Distributism links dispersed ownership with greater independence and influence for ordinary people.
Subsidiarity : The principle that decisions should be made by the smallest competent social unit. It supports local control and limits the concentration of economic and political authority.
Quadragesimo anno : Pope Pius XI’s 1931 encyclical on social order, economic concentration, and subsidiarity. It endorsed occupational organization and subsidiarity, ideas closely associated with distributist reform.
Credit union : A member-owned financial cooperative that provides banking services to its members. Member-owned credit can finance households and small enterprises outside large commercial banks.
Catholic Worker Movement : A Catholic social movement founded in 1933 that combines voluntary poverty, hospitality houses, and social activism. Its houses of hospitality and farming communities embody local, cooperative social practices.
Monopoly : A market condition in which one seller or producer dominates supply of a good or service. Distributists oppose monopoly as a form of concentrated economic power.
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