communalism

(-iz′əm)

noun

  1. a theory or system of government in which communes or local communities, sometimes on an ethnic or religious basis, have virtual autonomy within a federated state
  2. the conflicting allegiance resulting from this
  3. communal organization

Origin: Fr communalisme

Related Forms:

See communalism in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun
  1. Belief in or practice of communal ownership, as of goods and property.
  2. Strong devotion to the interests of one's own minority or ethnic group rather than those of society as a whole.

See communalism in Ologies

Communalism

See also society.

collectivization

the process of forming collectives or collective communities where property and resources are owned by the community and not individuals.

communalization

the process of communalizing, or forming communes, where property and resources belong to the community and not the individual.

communitarianism

a communal system based on cooperative groups that practice some of the principles of communism. —communitarian, n., adj.

Fourierism

a utopian social reform, planned by the French social scientist F.M. Charles Fourier, that organized groups into cooperative units called phalansteries, as Brook Farm. Also called phalansterianism. —Fourierist, Fourierite, n.

Hutterites

in the U.S. and Canada, descendants of Swiss Protestants exiled from their homeland in 1528 for communal living, paciflsm, and Anabaptist views, still persecuted for their economie self-sufficiency and their refusal to allow their communities to be assimilated. Also called Hutterian Brethren.

kibbutz

a communal farm in Israël, cooperatively owned, with members who receive no pay but who gain housing, clothing, medical care, and education from the cooperative. Also called kvutzah. —kibbutzim, n. pl.

Oneida Perfectionists

a native American communal society active in the middle 19th century in Putney, Vermont, and Oneida, New York, practicing a pooling of all property and communal marriage for eugenie reasons.

Owenism

the social and political theories of Robert Owen, an early 19th-century British reformer whose emphasis upon cooperative education and living led to the founding of communal experiments, including the ill-fated community of New Harmony, Indiana, purchased from the Rappites. — Owenite, n.

phalansterianism

Fourierism.

Rappist, Rappite

a follower of George Rapp, an early 19th-century German Pietistic preacher, whose experiments in a religion-based cooperative system involved the founding of Economy, Pennsylvania, and Harmonie, Indiana. Also called Harmonist, Harmonite.

xenobiosis

communal life, such as that of ants, in which colonies of different species live together but do not share the raising of the young.

Zionite

a believer in the doctrines of John Alexander Dowie who founded Zion City, Illinois, in 1901, as an industrial community for his followers.

Learn more about communalism

link/cite print suggestion box