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Liberal thought John B. Davenport analyses the Distributists and their impact. The Distributists and the Liberal Party Hilaire Belloc ne of the many factions subsumed in the product of a period of ideological redefini- (1870–1953) the Liberal Party before the First World tion – one which allowed individual Liberals con- G. K. Chesterton OWar were the Distributists, a small, self- siderable intellectual freedom. The failure of the (1874–1936) conscious, and intellectually influential group party to define the essence of modern Liberalism, of radical High Churchmen, who attempted to both before the First World War, and thereafter, marry their understanding of Christian social eventually led, of course, to the disintegration of teaching to a miscellany of traditional Liberal the party between the wars. The Distributists, preoccupations of the Edwardian period. These as eclectic Radical Liberals, entered the politi- particularly included British land reform on the cal wilderness after Versailles, eschewing the Irish model, home rule for the entirety of Ireland, standard ideologies of the day, whether ‘scientific’ limiting plutocratic influence on government, socialism, ‘New’ or ‘classical’ liberalism, or Con- and defining a social programme between ‘collec- servatism – of either the Red Tory or reactionary tivism’ and ‘individualism’ – a coherent ‘Liberal- varieties. The ‘centrist’ quality of pre-war Lib- ism’ between the socialist Scylla and Conservative eral reform (with which they often sympathised Charybdis. The Distributists were very much but which, after the war seemed missing from 26 Journal of Liberal History 93 Winter 2016–17 The Distributists and the Liberal Party British politics) they rediscovered, after a fash- death in 1928; and Cecil was a less-focused icon- ion, in Catholic social teaching. After the war, a oclastic ‘Radical’, who embraced Fabian Social- moderate, sometimes Catholic, political stance ism until about 1911 (while adamantly declaring was present on the Continent (e.g. in the German that a new Labour or Socialist Party needed a Centre Party, branches of certain liberal parties, programme absolutely distinct from Liberal- and in various ‘peasant’ parties) but it seemed to ism) and who generally believed that the Tories the Distributists to have absented itself from Brit- historically had promulgated marginally better ish politics, as the parties became increasingly ‘social legislation’ than the Liberals – by which indistinguishable.1 he meant legislation ameliorating the poverty of the working class – which for him was the most One of the many essential goal of British politics.4 His experience factions sub- Who were the Distributists? as a journalist in attempting to expose ‘insider The Distributists, at least initially, were more trading’ by several Liberal cabinet ministers dur- sumed in the Lib- of an intellectual club than a movement. Their ing the Marconi Scandal, 1912–13, negated any members originally included a closely knit group prospective sympathies he might have had for eral Party before of friends and relations, namely Hilaire Belloc ‘Liberal’ reform. (1870–1953), a journalist, popular historian, nov- Among the Distributists, the influence of the First World elist, humorous poet, social theorist, and Liberal Christianity generally, and the Catholic Church’s MP, 1906–10, for Salford South; Gilbert Keith social theology particularly, articulated in rela- War were the Dis- Chesterton (1874–1936), a journalist, novelist, tion to contemporary social problems by Pope playwright, poet, social theorist, and popular Leo XIII in the encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891), tributists, a small, theologian; and G. K.’s brother Cecil Chester- was significant. Belloc, a devout reflective Anglo- self-conscious, ton (1879–1918), a journalist, social theorist, and French Catholic layman, was thoroughly imbued the original ideological sparkplug of the group with the sensibility of social Catholicism, which and intellectu- – all established men of letters and public figures influenced all of his economic and social/political before the First World War.2 Belloc was a Catho- writing.5 The Chestertons initially were not influ- ally influential lic by birth, the Chestertons by conviction, with enced, to the degree Belloc had been, by this ideo- Cecil converting from Anglicanism in 1912 and logical strain, but as their disillusionment with group of radical G. K. in 1922. Catholic social theory, particularly Anglicanism, and interest in Catholicism grew, the papal encyclicals Rerum Novarum (1891) and under Belloc’s tutelage, this became an important High Churchmen, Quadragesimo Anno (1931), combined with cer- element in their worldviews as well. The Ches- tain idiosyncratic elements of the British Radi- tertons had been raised in a nominally Anglican who attempted cal Liberal tradition, became the touchstones of home, but the family most often had attended to marry their the Distributist system. While the most signifi- the Rev. Stopford Brooke’s Unitarian Bedford cant elements of Distributism were defined, to the Chapel in Bloomsbury.6 Both Chestertons longed, understanding of degree that they would be, before the First World in their young adulthoods, for greater beauty and War, both Belloc and G. K. Chesterton continued historicity in worship and doctrinal certainty Christian social to refine Distributist social philosophy through- than this upbringing provided, something which out the interwar period.3 they eventually found in Catholicism, after an teaching to a Politically, when they made their party affili- intermediate period spent within the Anglo- ations known before the First World War, Belloc Catholic wing of the Church of England.7 miscellany of tra- was perhaps the most publicly Liberal, both as an author and Member of Parliament, although ditional Liberal his experience as an MP, 1906–10, and the Mar- What did the Distributists believe?8 preoccupations coni Scandal, 1912–13, left him alienated from We can glean the essential doctrines of Dis- the party; G. K. is best described as an increas- tributism by examining the seven foundational of the Edwardian ingly disaffected Liberal supporter, who finally texts of the movement – listed here by date of severed his links with the party on Asquith’s publication – and noting in each both proposed period. Journal of Liberal History 93 Winter 2016–17 27 The Distributists and the Liberal Party policies and recurring criticisms of the contempo- moral sensibility, based – like G. K’s remembrance rary political system:9 of Gladstonian Liberalism, and unlike Lord • Hilaire Belloc, ‘The Liberal Tradition,’ in Rosebery’s secular ‘Efficiency’ – in a composite Essays in Liberalism, by Six Oxford Men – orthodox Christianity;12 (2) local autonomy in edited by John Swinnerton Phillimore and government, including the autonomy of smaller Francis Wrigley Hirst (1897); national or ethnic groups (like the Irish), and an • G. K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World abiding suspicion of ‘big’ or ‘central’ govern- (1910); ment;13 (3) protection of government at all levels • Hilaire Belloc and Cecil Chesterton, The from the intrusions of plutocratic manipulation;14 Party System (1911);10 (4) the sanctity of the nuclear family as the basic • Hilaire Belloc, The Servile State (1912); ‘building block’ of civilised society and provi- • G. K. Chesterton, The Utopia of the Usurers sion for the family of the requisite private prop- (1917); erty necessary to preserve its autonomy;15 (5) The • G. K. Chesterton, The Outline of Sanity (1927); necessity of home and plot ownership as the mini- • Hilaire Belloc, An Essay on the Restoration of mum of required family property;16 (6) individual Property (1936). responsibility and support for cooperative move- One most also append to this list two papal encyc- ments over and against socialist collectivism as licals, which eventually are considered founda- the basis of the amelioration of social problems;17 tional to Distributism: (7) opposition to contemporary imperialism, • Pope Leo XIII (Vincenzo Giocchino Pecci, of ‘the attempt of a European country to create pope 1878–1903), Rerum Novarum (1891); a kind of sham Europe which it can dominate, • Pope Pius XI (Achille Ambrogio Damiano instead of the real Europe, which it can only share Ratti, pope 1922–1939), Quadragesimo Anno … I do not believe in Imperialism as commonly (1931). understood’;18 (8) a middle ground in the licensing We first will examine the texts by Belloc and the question, pro-public-house but evidently with Chestertons, and thereafter briefly relate them to regulation, to insure some standard of ‘whole- the two papal encyclicals. someness’; 19 (9) opposition to ‘big’ capitalism Belloc was one of six Oxford alumni who con- The Party System and amoral business practices;20 (10) ambivalence tributed to Phillimore and Hirst’s Essays in Liberal- toward modern feminism, based in uncertainty ism, providing the introductory overview, ‘The – unsurprisingly, concerning women’s ‘real’ attitude toward the Liberal Tradition’. While there was inevitable ide- franchise, a belief in Christian ‘complementa- ological diversity amongst these representatives given the well- rianism’ regarding some family and vocational of the Liberal camp, Belloc identified the follow- roles, a strong belief in the need for a dedicated ing elements as constituting a commonality: indi- known bellicosity female domestic ‘administrator’ of the complex vidual responsibility rather than the acceptance of (middle-class)
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