Collective ownership is the ownership of private property by all members of a group.[1][2][nb 1] The breadth or narrowness of the group can range from a whole society to a set of coworkers in a particularenterprise (such as onecollective farm). In the latter narrower sense, collective ownership is distinguished fromcommon ownership and thecommons, which implies open access, the holding of assets in common, and the negation of ownership as such. Collective ownership of the means of production is the defining characteristic ofsocialism,[3] wherecollective ownership can refer to society-wide ownership (social ownership) or tocooperative ownership by an organization's members. When contrasted withpublic ownership, collective ownership commonly refers to group ownership (such as a producer cooperative).[4]
^Theprivate property definition (for example that of a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities) may not correspond to its colloquial usage in socialist contexts, where there is a distinction betweenpersonal property andprivate property (themeans of production).Personal property, also calledpossession, includes items intended for personal use (e.g. one's toothbrush, clothes, homes, vehicles, and sometimes money). It must be gained in a socially fair manner and the owner has a distributive right to exclude others (e.g. the right to command a fair share of personal property).Marxist socialists argue that private property is asocial relation between the owner and persons deprived (not a relationship between person and thing), e.g. artifacts, factories, mines, dams, infrastructure, natural vegetation, mountains, deserts, and seas—these generatecapital for the owner without the owner necessarily having to perform any physical labor. Conversely, those who perform labor using somebody else's private property are considered deprived of the value of their work inMarxist theory, and are instead given a salary that is disjointed from the value generated by the worker. In this context,private property andownership means ownership of the means of production, not personal possessions. To socialists, includinganarchists,private property refers to capital or the means of production whilepersonal property refers to non-capital andconsumer goods and services. For the anarchist view, see:
^Stuart, Robert C.; Gregory, Paul Roderick (2013).The Global Economy and its Economic Systems. Boston: South-Western College Publishing. p. 30.ISBN978-1-28505-535-0.There are three broad forms of property ownership – private, public, and collective (cooperative). Under private ownership, the three ownership rights ultimately belong to individuals, subject to limitations of disposition, use, and earnings. Under public ownership, these rights belong to the state. With collective ownership, property rights belong to the members of the collective.
^Stuart, Robert C.; Gregory, Paul Roderick (2013).The Global Economy and its Economic Systems. South-Western College Pub. p. 30.ISBN978-1-28505-535-0.According to these definitions, socialism can be a theoretical or political idea that advocates a particular way of organizing economic and political life. It can be an actual economic system in which the state owns and controls resources, or it can be a system of collective or group ownership of property.
