Editing Distributism (section)

== Background ==
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The mid-to-late 19th century witnessed an increase in the popularity of [[political Catholicism]] across [[Europe]].<ref>Adams, Ian (1993). ''Political Ideology Today''. Manchester University Press. pp. 59–60. {{ISBN|978-0-7190-3347-6}}</ref> According to historian Michael A. Riff, a common feature of these movements was opposition to [[secularism]], capitalism, and socialism.<ref name="Riff, Michael A. 1990 p. 35"/> In 1891 [[Pope Leo XIII]] promulgated ''[[Rerum novarum]]'', in which he addressed the "misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class" and spoke of how "a small number of very rich men" had been able to "lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself".<ref>Leo XIII, ''Rerum novarum'', 3.</ref> Affirmed in the encyclical was the right of all men to own property,<ref>Leo XIII, ''Rerum novarum'', 6.</ref> the necessity of a system that allowed "as many as possible of the people to become owners",<ref name="Leo XIII, Rerum novarum, 46">Leo XIII, ''Rerum novarum'', 46.</ref> the duty of employers to provide safe [[working conditions]]<ref>Leo XIII, ''Rerum novarum'', 42.</ref> and sufficient wages,<ref>Leo XIII, ''Rerum novarum'', 45.</ref> and the right of workers to [[Trade union|unionise]].<ref name="Leo XIII, Rerum novarum, 49">Leo XIII, ''Rerum novarum'', 49.</ref> [[Common ownership|Common]] and [[government ownership|government]] property ownership was expressly dismissed as a means of helping the poor.<ref>Leo XIII, ''Rerum novarum'', 4.</ref><ref>Leo XIII, ''Rerum novarum'', 15.</ref>

Around the start of the 20th century, [[G. K. Chesterton]] and [[Hilaire Belloc]] drew together the disparate experiences of the various cooperatives and [[Friendly society|friendly societies]] in Northern England, Ireland, and Northern Europe into a coherent political theory which specifically advocated widespread private ownership of housing and control of industry through owner-operated small businesses and worker-controlled cooperatives. In the United States in the 1930s, distributism was treated in numerous essays by Chesterton, Belloc and others in ''[[The American Review (literary journal)|The American Review]]'', published and edited by [[Seward Collins]]. Pivotal among Belloc's and Chesterton's other works regarding distributism are ''[[The Servile State]]''<ref>Hilaire Belloc, ''The Servile State'', The Liberty Fund, originally published 1913.</ref> and ''Outline of Sanity''.<ref>G. K. Chesterton, [https://archive.org/details/theoutlineofsanity ''The Outline of Sanity''], IHS Press, 2002, originally published 1927.</ref>