Solidarism as the Center of Economy—The Economics of Heinrich Pesch

Hans A. Frambach ()
Additional contact information
Hans A. Frambach: University of Wuppertal

A chapter in On the Economic Significance of the Catholic Social Doctrine, 2017, pp 27-45 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The Jesuit Heinrich Pesch is known as the founder of Catholic social theory. He aimed for improving the situation of the workers and he was concerned with the comparison between individualistically oriented capitalism and collectivistic socialism, the conflict of the social classes, and the family as the basis of the state. To him the his three pillars of the social order (family, state, and private property) appeared as indispensable conditions of any cultural development and built the basis for a different perception of national economics. Many of his ideas stood in line with the spirit of Rerum novarum. Pesch’s economic system, which he called solidarism, was decisive for the development of the second social encyclical Quadragesimo anno and for further social encyclicals. Solidarism was a social philosophy that saw the working human person as central to economic life, employing the principle of subsidiarity to determine the role of the state in economic activity, and subordinating economic activity to the social virtues of justice and charity. The central socio-political thrust of Pesch’s solidarism is the construction of a strong welfare state based on principles of order, authority and morality. He regarded this as a legal obligation. In this way, Pesch’s solidarism can be understood as a middle way, mediating between individualism and socialism.

Keywords: Heinrich Pesch; History of economic thought; Solidarism; Solidarity; Subsidiarity; Private property; Justice; Public welfare; Capitalism; Socialism; Catholic social doctrine; Rerum novarum; Quadragesimo anno; A13; B15; B31; B41; N33; N34; P51; Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:euhchp:978-3-319-52545-7_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319525457

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-52545-7_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in The European Heritage in Economics and the Social Sciences from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().