[6] In 1881, Pope Leo XIII commissioned theologians and social thinkers to study corporatism and provide a definition for it.
In 1884 in Freiburg, Germany, the commission declared that corporatism was a "system of social organization that has at its base the grouping of men according to the community of their natural interests and social functions, and as true and proper organs of the state they direct and coordinate labor and capital in matters of common interest.
When in 1888 the Pope gave them an audience, they affirmed the dignity of labor, and made notes on property ownership and market speculation.
They also gave detail reports on a moral minimum wage, Credit and interest, and an early elaboration on the corporative organization of society.
[11] In 1891, Pope Leo XIII issued the papal encyclical Rerum novarum, which is considered foundational to catholic social thought.
[17] Pesch was quite in tune with the prior Catholic corporatist thinkers,[18] and his solidarism was a systematization of the work of Wilhelm Von Ketteler, Vogelsang & Franz Hitze.
[23] Pope Pius XI in advocated Christian corporatism as an alternative to capitalist individualism and socialist totalitarianism whereby people would be organized into workers' guilds or vocational groups that would cooperate under the supervision of a neutral state.
[3] In the Netherlands, protestant corporatism can be found in the works of Abraham Kuyper, whose ideas partially inspired the polder model.