Producerism

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Producerism is a term used in academic circles to describe a minority viewpoint within political conservatism as well as by some liberals who stake out a "radical center" or "third way" course, which views a strong middle class as the productive and stabilizing element in society. This middle class is seen as under threat from both above - big business and unregulated capital - and below, from what are viewed as non-productive elements in society (which may include illegal immigration, crime, classes on welfare, or to use a Marxist concept, the "lumpenproletariat".)

Conservatives who tend toward producerist views therefore will tend to support trade unions and governmental regulation of big business, while viewing small business favorably; small business being seen as part of the productive middle class, and big business seen as parasitical and regarded with some disdain. Unlike left-wing labor unionists though, producerism tends to see workers and small capital as natural allies. Producerism tends to oppose globalization and free trade. Social conservatives may hold producerist views on the grounds that the middle class is a stabilizing force in society and a repository of traditional values while big business (i.e., Disney) and the lower classes both promote moral degradation. This is distinct from the majority conservative position in which the interests of big business and unregulated capital are given priority.

Liberals who tend toward producerist views will often speak in terms of "the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and the middle class being squeezed from both ends". Producerism is often seen as the main ideology behind such splinter center-right movements as H. Ross Perot's Reform Party in the United States, and earlier, the popular ideology in the United States guiding post-New Deal liberalism in the 1950s and 1960s (which built a strong middle class but left some groups from below out, making the civil rights movement necessary). It is also often conflated with populism. A more radical sort of producerism might uphold a largely agrarian and small-town society (as proposed by Thomas Jefferson) as the ideal, holding urban society (with both its large capitalist "from above" and lumpen "from below" elements in full display) in disdain, and envision an economy entirely of small businesses and small producers: see Distributism for example.

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