Collectivism (disambiguation)

Collectivism is a set of beliefs and practices concerning group activities that is usually based on group ownership of capital. It can take the form of corporations (if the collective involves a hierarchy) or communes (if the collective is egalitarian).

Some political systems are based on a form of collectivism known as corporatism - fascism in particular. Nationalism regards people with reference to their nationality. Marxism regards people with reference to their economic class.

Some political collectivists hold that different groups have competing interests, and that the individual's interests and characteristics are in fact tied up with the interests and characteristics of his or her group. Differences between groups are considered significant, while differences between individuals within groups, to the extent that they are acknowledged at all, are considered unimportant. This line of reasoning, anti-collectivists allege, often leads to the suppression of individual rights, which are sacrificed for the alleged good of the group.

Other political collectivists emphasize the notions of equality and solidarity, and see all human beings as part of the same group, with common interests. They maintain that competition and rivalry between individuals or smaller groups is overall counter-productive or detrimental, and should therefore be replaced with some form of co-operation. Anti-collectivists make the same objections to this form of collectivism as to the previous one, while collectivists defend their views by arguing that the "common good" is only the sum of the "individual good" of every member of the group, and that collectivism therefore benefits the individual.

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Collectivism is also the name of a free magazine for Wolverhampton; see Collectivism (magazine).