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Communalism[1] is a term with three distinct meanings according to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary.[2] These include: (1) "a theory of government or a system of government in which independent communes participate in a federation"; (2) "the principles and practice of communal ownership". Many experiments in utopian socialism did implement internal rules of communalist property ownership in the context of federated communalism. It is at least theoretically possible for a federation of communes to include communes which do not practice communalist rules of property, which is to say, that the overall national government may be a federation of communes, but that private property rather than communalist property is the order within each such commune. Karl Marx, often viewed as the founder of communism, criticized other socialists of his era, and made particularly blistering criticisms of utopianism which was generally conceived along communalist principles, both federational communalism and local property communalism.[3]

Political theory[edit]



This primary method used to achieve this is called libertarian municipalism which involves the establishment of face-to-face democratic institutions which are to grow and expand confederally with the goal of eventually replacing the nation-state. Unlike anarchists, Communalists are not opposed in principle to taking part in parliamentary politics -especially municipal elections- as long as candidates are libertarian socialist and anti-statist in policy.

Communalism in history[edit]


Communalism as ethnic allegiance[edit]

The third definition[5] is "strong allegiance to one's own ethnic group rather than to society." For reasons which have not been explicated[dubious ], the term is associated with events in South Asia,[6] but it is unclear what distinguishes the ethnic conflict there from ethnic conflicts in other parts of the world. India is largely English-speaking, but there does not appear to be any published research establishing that or any other fact as a basis for the pattern by which the term is applied to South Asian inter-ethnic strife rather than to events elsewhere.

Indian subcontinent[edit]

In the Indian subcontinent, the term communalism has taken on a very different meaning, namely that of a religion—and, more specifically, ethnicity-based sectarianism promoting communal violence, espoused by many political movements.[citation needed]

Communalism in religion[edit]

Radical Pre-Reformation and Reformation[edit]







One text that develops the argument that communalistic tendencies were present in radical reformation era movements in Europe is Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation by the Marxian theorist Karl Kautsky.[7]

Plymouth Colony[edit]


In this primarily religious-based community, the communist-like principle used by the "primitive" Christian Church as described in the Acts of the Apostles ("all things be held in common") was used as a basis for the contract agreed upon by the venture and its investors. This common ownership was more akin to what we now think of as a privately held corporation as the common ownership of property and profits was insured by the issuing of stock to the settlers and investors which would be paid out from the division of the common property and profits after seven years.



True Levellers[edit]



See also: Bishop's storehouse, Mormonism and the national debate over socialism and communism, and ZCMI

In the 19th century The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, colloquially called Mormons, attempted to live a form of Christian communalism called the Law of Consecration, using organizations described as the United Order. This was established under Joseph Smith, Jr.[10] and was first practiced in Kirtland, Ohio in the early 1830s. This originally helped Latter Day Saints with settling in Ohio and was to have helped with building and sustaining entire communities in Missouri, including Independence, Adam-ondi-Ahman, and Far West. Subsequent events, including the 1838 Mormon War, made it impossible for these communities to thrive.

After the Mormon Exodus and initial settlement of the Utah Territory, Brigham Young began in 1874 to establish a series of community cooperatives, which were collectively called the United Order of Enoch. This program was used in at least 200 Mormon communities, most of them in outlying rural areas, away from the central Mormon settlements. Most of the cooperatives lasted for only two or three years before returning to a more standard economic system. One of the last United Order cooperatives was located in Orderville, which continued until an 1885 anti-polygamy law enforcement action under the Edmunds Act effectively ended it by jailing many of its leaders.

The Law of Consecration (as expressed via the United Order) was an attempt to base income on a families' actual needs and wants, not on their ability to produce. This was to be done through a strictly voluntary covenant; it was not deemed acceptable to establish economic equality through force (see also Mormon beliefs on agency). The church has never called this practice communism. Instead the church has formally stated that, due to matters of spirituality, the United Order and communism are materially opposite in purpose:


The Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite), a tiny sect of the Latter Day Saint movement headquartered in Independence, Missouri has operated a functioning United Order since 1913. Membership in the order is required of all church members, as Cutlerites reject tithing and all similar means of church finance.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ What is Communalism? The Democratic Dimension of Anarchism by Murray Bookchin
  2. ^ Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Second Edition,1998, New York
  3. ^ The Collected Works of Karl Marx, Moscow
  4. ^ Organizing independence: the artists federation of the Paris Commune and its ... By Gonzalo J. Sánchez
  5. ^ RH Webster
  6. ^
  8. ^ Bradford, William, Of Plymouth Plantation, Chapter 6, pp.56–58
  9. ^ Bradford, William, Of Plymouth Plantation, Book 2, 1620–1623, pp. 110–186
  10. ^ Section 42

External links[edit]