Towards a Distributist State

"Toward a Truly Free Market" is a book expounding Distributism, an economic theory associated with G K Chesterton and Hilarie Belloc, and more generally with Catholicism. Distributism sees itself as an alternative to both socialism and capitalism (at least capitalism as usually conceived). It emphasizes local production, small businesses and cooperatives. Chesterton's and Belloc's version of Distributism also had an anti-modernist slant, but this is mostly lacking in John Medaille's version, who believes that Distributism is a viable option for a modern nation-state. One thing *not* lacking, though, is the patriarchal perspective: businesses should be owned and operates by men, while their wives stay at home and take care of the children. The author understands the perils of environmental destruction, but has the usual Catholic blind spot concerning overpopulation...

The book speaks mostly for itself, but one aspect deserves some comment. The author, as can be expected for an American, claims that Distributism stands for a "truly free market". In reality, of course, it does *not* stand for such a thing. The author believes that the disequilibrium in capitalist markets (which makes government intervention necessary) is caused by the market not being "truly" free. But a truly free market will *never* be at equilibrium, something at least Hayek seemed to have understood. Many of Medaille's concrete proposals are dependent on heavy government intervention. Thus, he wants to break up the giant private monopolies. The author proposes that the government prints debt-free money as a way of paying back the national debt over a period of 15 to 20 years. One of his examples of how Distributism works in practice is Chiang Kai-shek's "land to the tiller" program in Taiwan, which created a prosperous mixed economy under the tutelage of an authoritarian regime! Medaille also proposes that only medical doctors who belong to a doctors' guild be allowed to practice. The guilds are private, but their rules are supervised by the government. Contradicting himself, Medaille proposes to slash the federal budget and do away with most taxes, except for taxes on land or externalities, which businesses can avoid by refraining from speculation or environmental destruction. However, since the government has the right to print its own money, it's not even clear whether it *needs* taxes!

I'm not opposed to government intervention in the economy. However, I think the Distributists should come clean about it, rather than pretending to be a slightly more exotic breed of libertarians. I give the book four stars, since it's an interesting attempt to restate Distributism in a slightly less archaic fashion than Chesterbelloc. However, I suspect that a similar book written by a European or Latin American would have placed the emphasis somewhere else...