Daily Caller has published a noteworthy article by @radical…

The connection of Corporatism to Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is not lost on Roberts; in fact, he makes explicit mention of Leo XIII's Rerum novarum. What he does not mention is the crucial difference between Chinese Corporatism and the Christian Corporatism of CST.

One side of that crucial difference is summarized in the following highlighted passage. It is at this point that careful readers should have noted that what Roberts is describing is State Corporatism, or the Corporate State, and not Societal Corporatism, or the Corporate Society.

The difference between the Corporate State and Corporate Society is something I've discussed before, most recently by referring to Fr. Mort's "Christian Corporatism," which contrasts the State Corporatism of Fascist Italy with the Societal Corporatism of CST.

Note that the distinction between the Corporate State and Corporate Society is not reserved to proponents of Catholic Social Teaching. Unger and Chan, cited by Roberts, make the same distinction in their 2015 paper "State corporatism and business associations in China."

The difference highlighted revolves around the question of the role of the State in the realization of the common good. In Communist China, as in Fascist Italy, the State plans, directs and commands the economy. This runs counter to the principle of Subsidiarity central to CST.

In an earlier tweet, I quoted a long passage from Bruehl's "The Pope's Plan for Social Reconstruction" which clarifies how Christian Corporatism envisions the role of the State in economic matters. It is very much worth reviewing in this context.

https://t.co/OcwO2h44Be

A short summary of Christian Corporatism, sometimes called Vocationalism, as it envisions a central role for Vocational Groups which unite Capital and Labor (from Bruehl's "The Pope's Plan for Social Reconstruction"). pic.twitter.com/qWewnRDh00
— Radical Catholic (@RadicalCath) February 3, 2020

Why is any of this important? Because we've seen several bad-faith actors quietly appropriate key elements of Catholic Social Teaching and put them to use in the promotion of Socialism. I'm not accusing Roberts; I assume good faith on his part. But this is a common occurrence.

It doesn't help that an equal number of Catholics seem to reject everything in Catholic Social Teaching which diverges from Liberal Capitalism and Trickle-Down Economics. Their only real interest in CST is as a magisterial defense of private property against Socialism.

Roberts has written an interesting piece on State Corporatism, and I thank him for the contribution in as far as it offers a jumping-off point to investigate Christian Corporatism and the Corporate Society proposed by Catholic Social Teaching.

For those interested in reading more about Christian Corporatism, especially on how it differs from State Corporatism, I recommend the following article, cited above, by Fr. Ernest Mort.

-fin-

https://t.co/uWaZP5Fkf0

Quadragesimo Anno is a rich vision of how to implement the spiritual-social vision of the popes of the past two centuries, especially when analyzed in context of Mussolini's Italy:https://t.co/Z74o5jQoZJ pic.twitter.com/FQCegOpRfi
— Muck (@Integral_Muck) January 31, 2020

Daily Caller has published a noteworthy article by @radicalbenjamin on the subject of Corporatism. I'd like to comment on it, but I'm consciously directing my comments at Catholics, especially those who might have noted my own tweets on the same

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