However, there is one trend in North Dakota that might interest readers of First Things. Whether or nor intentionally, North Dakota has implemented policies which look like distributism.

Although there were some socialists in the Non-Partisan League, socialism was not the idea behind creating a state-owned bank and flour mill. The purpose was to ensure that farmers had access to markets and credit rather than being dependent upon one or few out-of-state corporations. It was, in other words, intended to help private markets work, not socialize them.

That trend has continued in North Dakota. Consider these laws:

The state prohibits investor-owned corporations from owning agricultural land or engaging in agriculture production.

North Dakota prohibits non-pharmacists from owning pharmacies. Wal-Mart need not apply.

North Dakota law encourages and favors the development of producer-owned cooperatives over corporations.

The state is one of only two to have passed a model publicly traded corporations act which puts more power into the hands of shareholders.

The state regulates the price of milk so the retail cost is relatively uniform.

Some communities own the town’s grocery store.

Probably very few North Dakotans have read Belloc or Chesterton or know anything about distributism. Rather than ideology, it is the populist mistrust of outside dominance which more likely explains the trend.

“…(A)bsolutely under no circumstances will abortions be performed and allowed within any private or public facility within the boundaries of the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation and other lands under the jurisdiction of the Tribe.

The governing body faithfully believes that life is sacred and begins at the moment of conception between a man and a woman and life to be protected at all levels affirming natural law and reasoning… pro-life is a universal issue of common sense, moral righteousness for the common good of life.”