collectivization

Other forms: collectivizations

When an industry is controlled by a collaborative group, instead of by individual private owners, it's called collectivization. The Soviet Union's 1930s policy of agricultural collectivization transformed many small farms into one enormous shared farm.

In economics, collectivization means forming collectives, or cooperative organizations, instead of allowing separate businesses to compete against each other. It's an important concept in communism, and Stalin's unsuccessful attempt at using collectivization to free peasants from poverty is often used as proof it can't work. Other kinds of collectivization have been more successful, though, from cooperative living situations to artist and worker collectives that give groups of people more support and bargaining power than they had as individuals.

Definitions of collectivization

1. noun

   the organization of a nation or economy on the basis of collectivism
   synonyms: collectivisation

   type of:

   constitution, establishment, formation, organisation, organization

   the act of forming or establishing something