01
Power (-33)
Civil liberty to State authority
Reads toward Civil liberty.
Distributism
An economic position that wants productive property held by many owners rather than a few. The library scores it at the traditional and religious ends of its two cultural axes, and toward decentralisation on structure.
This is a library entry, not a result. See every profile the test compares you against →
The twelve axes, axis by axis
Each axis is a tension rather than a good-versus-bad choice, and a reading near the centre is not a weaker answer than one at an end.
02
Democracy (-11)
Popular rule to Expert governance
Sits inside the centre band on this axis, so the library records no direction here.
03
Economy (-11)
Planned economy to Free market
Sits inside the centre band on this axis, so the library records no direction here.
04
Welfare (-33)
Social provision to Self-reliance
Reads toward Social provision.
05
Sovereignty (+33)
Global integration to National sovereignty
Reads toward National sovereignty.
06
Force (-33)
Diplomacy to Hard power
Reads toward Diplomacy.
07
Culture (+100)
Progress to Tradition
Reads toward Tradition.
08
Religion (+100)
Secular state to Religious foundation
Reads toward Religious foundation.
09
Ecology (-11)
Ecological limits to Economic growth
Sits inside the centre band on this axis, so the library records no direction here.
10
Technology (-56)
Precaution to Acceleration
Reads toward Precaution.
11
Structure (-56)
Decentralisation to Centralisation
Reads toward Decentralisation.
12
Rights (+56)
Majority rule to Entrenched rights
Reads toward Entrenched rights.
Score meanings and pole definitions are published on the twelve axes page.
What the position argues
Distributism holds that ownership of productive property should be spread as widely as possible, rather than concentrated either in the state or in a small owning class. The library groups it with the religious traditions, and its recorded position is one of the most traditional and most religious profiles in the set.
Hilaire Belloc's The Servile State, published by T. N. Foulis in 1912, states the argument the position rests on: “If we do not restore the Institution of Property we cannot escape restoring the Institution of Slavery; there is no third course.”
Where it sits on the twelve axes
Culture and religion are the two strongest readings in this profile, both at the far end of their axes. Structure and technology sit at the decentralist and precautionary ends respectively, and power, welfare and force all lean the same way.
Economy and democracy stay close to the centre, which is why the profile reads as a social and cultural position first and an economic programme second.
Closest positions in the library
Agrarianism
The land, the family holding and the small community as the moral centre of the nation.
Christian Democracy
A market economy organised around family, congregation and subsidiarity.
Federalism
Power divided between nested communities, each sovereign in its own sphere.
G. K. Chesterton — This library's entry for Chesterton describes his recorded positions as distributist.
Agrarianism — The nearest position in the ideology set, and the one most easily confused with it.
Ordered by the same direction-only comparison the test uses to rank a profile against your answers. The library holds 31 entries in this set.
Sources
The twelve-axis vector on this page is an editorial reading of the position described, taken from the published library — not a measurement and not an endorsement.
See where you land on this profile
The entry above is one position in the library. Take the test to have your own twelve scores ranked against it, or read the definitions behind each axis first.
This page describes Distributism. Every profile in the library is listed together on the combined library page, and every vector on it is written the same way this one is.