The Political Economy of Distributism

The Political Economy of Distributism PDF Author: Alexander William Salter
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813236819
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
In recent years, prominent scholars, public intellectuals, and politicians have advocated reforming America’s economic model to embrace “common-good capitalism.” Catholic social teaching is a major influence on this movement. Is common-good capitalism compatible with the historical American commitments to private property rights and ordered liberty? What resources from Catholic social teaching can help orient free enterprise towards the common good? This book is the first scholarly inquiry into these exciting new questions. We can better understand common-good capitalism by exploring the political economy of distributism. Formulated in the early 20th century by prominent Catholic intellectuals such as Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton, distributism emphasizes the importance of widely dispersed property ownership for human flourishing. Distributist thinkers, opposed both to capitalism and socialism, sought a humane approach to politics and economics that reflected the truths of Catholic social teaching. Some of the distributists’ claims about markets and government must be revised in light of contemporary social science. Nevertheless, their political-economic vision contains profound truths about the human condition, which social scientists would be unwise to ignore. Distributism’s insights about the nature of liberty and the social foundations of human dignity can improve ongoing conversations among economists, political scientists, and philosophers. The Political Economy of Distributism explores distributism both as a research program and a blueprint for political-economic reform. As many are reconsidering the relationship between markets and government, this timely book demonstrates the perennial relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition to public affairs. Academics, public servants, policy experts, and concerned citizens can all benefit from this timely study of common-good capitalism’s prospects.

The Political Economy of Distributism

The Political Economy of Distributism PDF Author: Alexander William Salter
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813236819
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book Here

Book Description
In recent years, prominent scholars, public intellectuals, and politicians have advocated reforming America’s economic model to embrace “common-good capitalism.” Catholic social teaching is a major influence on this movement. Is common-good capitalism compatible with the historical American commitments to private property rights and ordered liberty? What resources from Catholic social teaching can help orient free enterprise towards the common good? This book is the first scholarly inquiry into these exciting new questions. We can better understand common-good capitalism by exploring the political economy of distributism. Formulated in the early 20th century by prominent Catholic intellectuals such as Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton, distributism emphasizes the importance of widely dispersed property ownership for human flourishing. Distributist thinkers, opposed both to capitalism and socialism, sought a humane approach to politics and economics that reflected the truths of Catholic social teaching. Some of the distributists’ claims about markets and government must be revised in light of contemporary social science. Nevertheless, their political-economic vision contains profound truths about the human condition, which social scientists would be unwise to ignore. Distributism’s insights about the nature of liberty and the social foundations of human dignity can improve ongoing conversations among economists, political scientists, and philosophers. The Political Economy of Distributism explores distributism both as a research program and a blueprint for political-economic reform. As many are reconsidering the relationship between markets and government, this timely book demonstrates the perennial relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition to public affairs. Academics, public servants, policy experts, and concerned citizens can all benefit from this timely study of common-good capitalism’s prospects.

Toward a Truly Free Market

Toward a Truly Free Market PDF Author: John Medaille
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1684516889
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Taking "free markets" from rhetoric to reality For three decades free-market leaders have tried to reverse longstanding Keynesian economic policies, but have only produced larger government, greater debt, and more centralized economic power. So how can we achieve a truly free-market system, especially at this historical moment when capitalism seems to be in crisis? The answer, says John C. Medaille, is to stop pretending that economics is something on the order of the physical sciences; it must be a humane science, taking into account crucial social contexts. Toward a Truly Free Market argues that any attempt to divorce economic equilibrium from economic equity will lead to an unbalanced economy—one that falls either to ruin or to ruinous government attempts to redress the balance. Medaille makes a refreshingly clear case for the economic theory—and practice—known as distributism. Unlike many of his fellow distributists, who argue primarily from moral terms, Medaille enters the economic debate on purely economic terms. Toward a Truly Free Market shows exactly how to end the bailouts, reduce government budgets, reform the tax code, fix the health-care system, and much more.

Three Works on Distributism

Three Works on Distributism PDF Author: G. K. Chesterton
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781449511227
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Distributism, the third way between Capitalism and Socialism, has its roots in Catholic Social Teaching. Now, for the first time, three seminal works by one of its original proponents are available in one volume ** What's Wrong with the World ** The Outline of Sanity ** Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays

Economics for Helen

Economics for Helen PDF Author: Hilaire Belloc
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description


The Hound of Distributism

The Hound of Distributism PDF Author: Richard Aleman
Publisher: Acs Books
ISBN: 9781505104776
Category : Distribution (Economic theory)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A Solution for Our Social and Economic Crisis In 1891, Pope Leo XIII wrote the groundbreaking encyclical Rerum Novarum, which featured the Catholic Church's response to the conditions of the working classes and unleashed modern Catholic social thought. Inspired by Leo's call for the law to "induce as many as possible of the people to become owners," famed writers G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc crafted an alternative against the dispossession caused by the monopolizing ends of socialism and capitalism, which come at the expense of justice, the common good, and our natural resources. In a world obsessed with growth and globalization, Distributism is a political economy championing the sustainability of decentralized, local economies with the aim of ensuring the widest ownership of the means of production. The solution to our present socio-economic malaise is an economy as if people and God mattered. The Hound of Distributism is a collection of essays written by leading distributist authors from around the world. Given our present social and economic crisis, this timely and rich volume challenges the sterility of our present by recovering the value of the socio-economic theory of Distributism.

Of Labour and Liberty

Of Labour and Liberty PDF Author: Race Mathews
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268103445
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
What will the future of work, social freedom, and employment look like? In an era of increased job insecurity and social dislocation, is it possible to reshape economics along democratic lines in a way that genuinely serves the interests of the community? Of Labour and Liberty arises from Race Mathews’s half-century and more of political and public policy involvement. It responds to evidence of a precipitous decline in active citizenship, resulting from a loss of confidence in politics, politicians, parties, and parliamentary democracy; the rise of "lying for hire" lobbyism; increasing concentration of capital in the hands of a wealthy few; and corporate wrongdoing and criminality. It also questions whether political democracy can survive indefinitely in the absence of economic democracy—of labor hiring capital rather than capital labor. It highlights the potential of the social teachings of the Catholic Church and the now largely forgotten Distributist political philosophy and program that originated from them as a means of bringing about a more equal, just, and genuinely democratic social order. It describes and evaluates Australian attempts to give effect to Distributism, with special reference to Victoria. And with an optimistic view to future possibilities it documents the support and advocacy of Pope Francis, and ownership by some 83,000 workers of the Mondragon cooperatives in Spain. This book will interest scholars and students of Catholic social teaching, history, economics, industrial relations, and business and management.

The Outline of Sanity

The Outline of Sanity PDF Author: G. K. Chesterton
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 147334722X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
G. K. Chesterton’s famous thesis explores the subjects of poverty, agriculture, machinery, capital gain, and concentration of wealth from an anti-capitalist viewpoint. This fascinating volume argues the threat to smaller businesses as corporate companies become more dominant. Fiercely relevant almost 100 years after its first publication, The Outline of Sanity is G. K. Chesterton’s insightful exploration of humanity’s future. He criticises both the scientific management theory and Marxist Trotskyism, questioning the longevity of democracy. First published in 1926. The contents of this volume features: - Some General Ideas - The Beginning of the Quarrel - The Peril of the Hour - The Chance of Recovery - Some Aspects of Big Business - The Bluff of the Big Shops - A Misunderstanding about Method - A Case in Point - The Tyranny of Trusts - Some Aspects of the Land

The Commons

The Commons PDF Author: Vangelis Papadimitropoulos
Publisher: University of Westminster Press
ISBN: 1912656841
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This book explores the potential creation of a broader collaborative economy through commons-based peer production (P2P) and the emergent role of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The book seeks to critically engage in the political discussion of commons-based peer production, which can be classified into three basic arguments: the liberal, the reformist and the anti-capitalist. This book categorises the liberal argument as being in favour of the coexistence of the commons with the market and the state. Reformists, on the other hand, advocate for the gradual adjustment of the state and of capitalism to the commons, while anti-capitalists situate the commons against capitalism and the state. By discussing these three viewpoints, the book contributes to contemporary debates concerning the future of commons-based peer production. Further, the author argues that for the commons to become a fully operational mode of peer production, it needs to reach critical mass arguing that the liberal argument underestimates the reformist insight that technology has the potential to decentralise production, thereby forcing capitalism to transition to post-capitalism. Surveying the three main strands of commons-based peer production, this book makes the case for a post-capitalist commons-orientated transition that moves beyond neoliberalism.

The Servile State

The Servile State PDF Author: Hilaire Belloc
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 102

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Book Description
This book lays out, in very broad outline, Belloc's version of European economic history, starting with ancient pagan states, in which slavery was critical to the economy, through the medieval Christendom process which transformed an economy based on serf labour in a state in which the property was well distributed, to 19th and 20th century capitalism. Belloc argues that the development of capitalism was not a natural consequence of the Industrial Revolution, but a consequence of the earlier dissolution of the monasteries in England, which then shaped the course of English industrialisation. English capitalism then spread across the world.

The Cancer Stage of Capitalism

The Cancer Stage of Capitalism PDF Author: John McMurtry
Publisher: Pluto Press
ISBN: 9780745313474
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
In this bold new look at the recent uncontrolled spread of global capitalism, John McMurtry, professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph, develops the metaphor of modern capitalism as a cancer. Its invasive growth, he argues, threatens to break down our society's immune system and--if not soon restrained--could reverse all the progress that has been made toward social equity and stability. On every continent, in every state, there are indicators of profound economic and environmental collapse. From the lands of indigenous communities to the currency markets of Asia, from the ocean floors to the ozone layer, the collapse is all-encompassing and deep-reaching. John McMurtry traces the causes of this global disorder back to the mutating assumptions of market theory that now govern the world’s economy. He diagnoses the malaise as a pathologist would a biological cancer, tracking the delinked circuits of the global system’s monetised growth as a carcinogenic disorder at the social level of life-organization. In the wide-lensed tradition of Adam Smith, Marx and Keynes, McMurtry cuts across academic disciplines and boundaries to penetrate the inner logic of the system’s problems. Far from pessimistic, he argues that the way out of the global crisis is to be found in an evolving substructure of history which provides a common ground of resolution across ethnic and national divisions. Reaching beyond conventional textbooks, this fascinating study offers a new paradigm which is accessible to intelligent citizens the world over.