The Industry Council Idea: Is It Adaptable to the United States?

The article examines whether the Industrial Council Idea can be implemented in the U.S. The Industry Council Plan is a proposed system of social and economic organization which would be functional, democratic, legally recognized but not government controlled, and balanced to achieve the recognition of both individual rights and the general welfare. The Industry Council Plan or Idea is the American Catholic expression for one of the more important elements in the papal program for social reform as stated in papal addresses. Essentially this corporate, occupational order of society implies the following: society is analogically conceived as a body, its various functional elements, including economic institutions, playing the role of organs in that body; implicit in this conception is the principle and process of cooperation. It will be noticed that this papal plan is actually a complex of principles applied to social life; it is not a detailed structural design. A field of industrial co-responsibility is already implementing in greater or lesser degree many of the principles designated as fundamental to the socio-industrial reform envisioned by the Industry Council Idea. The principles behind the Industrial Council Idea are indeed capable of further implementation in the U.S.