The Servile State
Hilaire Belloc's 1912 history of capitalism and warning of a state where workers are compelled by law.
At a glance
Key ideas
Servility defined, Capitalism is unstable, Three exits …
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Hilaire Belloc, Friedrich Hayek and George Orwell
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- Belloc defines the servile state as one where a propertyless majority is compelled by positive law to work for those who own the means of production.
- He argues capitalism is unstable, a disruption of the spread of property that grew up in the Middle Ages.
- He blames the Reformation, not the Industrial Revolution, for its rise.
- He holds that socialist reforms will only hasten the servile state, and that the real choice is property for many or for none.
Why it matters
- The first text to name distributism and still its foundational text; Walter Lippmann and George Orwell called it prophetic, and Hayek quoted it in The Road to Serfdom.
Key facts
- Author
- Hilaire Belloc1
- Published
- 19121
- United States
- First published there in 1946, after Dorothy Day called for it1
- Reissued
- 1979, when Walter Lippmann called it a "landmark of political thought in this century"1
Key ideas
-
Servility defined1
A proletariat without property is compelled by positive law to labour for the owners.
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Capitalism is unstable1
Few owners plus freedom for all strains the state's moral claims and breeds insecurity.
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Three exits1
Instability resolves into slavery, socialism or property.
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No third course1
"Putting property into the hands of many, or by putting it into the hands of none. There is no third course."
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Reform leads to servility1
Collectivist reforms hasten and harden the servile state rather than end it.
Connections
Written by
Related
- Friedrich HayekPersonThe Road to Serfdom quotes it at the head of a chapter
- George OrwellSaid it "foretold with astonishing accuracy" what was happening, but offered no remedy
Links
Sources
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