Distributism
Distributism holds that productive property should be spread as widely as possible, among small farmers, craftsmen, family businesses and cooperatives, rather than concentrated in either large corporations or the state.
- Widespread ownership of property is the basis of freedom and dignity.
- Both monopoly capitalism and state socialism concentrate property and should be avoided.
- Guilds, cooperatives and family enterprises are preferred economic units.
Distributism grew from Catholic social teaching, especially Rerum Novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo Anno (1931). G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc developed it in England from the 1910s, beginning with Belloc's The Servile State (1912) and continuing in Chesterton's The Outline of Sanity (1926). It later influenced cooperative movements and agrarian politics.
Economists argue that it would sacrifice economies of scale and lower living standards. Others see it as nostalgic for a pre-industrial world.
Countries and historical regimes whose 12-axis profile is closer to Distributism than to any other ideology in the test.
Distributism is also the second-closest ideology for: Democratic Athens, Iraq, Austria-Hungary.
Method: each ideology is placed at a typical position on the 12 axes, scored from 0 to 100 toward the first pole. Ranks compare it with the other 45 ideologies; matches are 100 minus the average distance across all axes. The positions are our own calibration, not taken from any third-party source.