Collectivism

Collectivism, as the political theorist Andrew Vincent has noted, was first used in the late 19th century to refer to those writers and intellectuals who sought to use the state and the apparatus of government to control or regulate the economy and other aspects of civil society. It also has been employed to refer to those who favor an organic view of society, as opposed to individualism. Collectivism is sometimes used to designate the same philosophical approach to social and political life as the term socialism, particularly in the sense of the favoring of the collective ownership of the means of production.

Collectivism may be contrasted with individualism in the areas of methodology and the explanation of social phenomena, and in terms of social philosophy and ...