The corporative third way in social catholicism (1830-1918)

The idea of a third way was theorised in nineteenth-century Catholic socio-economic thought where vocational orders were asked to play a fundamental role in the regulation of economic processes. We will describe the development of Social Catholicism, looking at Neo-Thomistic philosophy which, towards the middle of the nineteenth century, began to frame an early attempt to develop some economic theories compatible with Catholic ethics. We will highlight the different positions of Catholic economists, the theoretical difficulties that their theory encountered, due to the different epistemology adopted, and the influences that German Kathedersozialismus had on the further development of the idea of a corporative \u2018third way\u2019