FOURIERISM, the social system advo cated by F. C. M. Fourier (q.v.). It was based on the theory that the social order de pends upon fixed moral and intellectual laws, and that man must discover and live according .
to these laws. According to Fourier society must be so organized as to give freedom to the passions or desires of man, since these are naturally capable of harmony, and if developed under proper conditions, would, in accordance with the law of attraction, lead to a perfect society. He first intended that marriage should be abolished as imposing an unnatural bondage on human passion and a system of licenses sub stituted; but this was afterward abandoned. In this society industry should be carried on by phalanxes. Each phalanx was to consist of 1600 persons, residing in a common building; the phalanx to be divided into series, and the series combined in groups; each group was to have charge of one kind of work, and each series of one special branch of that work. In the distribution of products a certain minimum was to be assigned to each member of the so ciety, whether capable of labor or not; the re mainder to be shared among the three elements, labor, talent and capital in the proportion of five to labor, three to talent, and four to capi tal. The capital of the community might be owned in unequal shares by different members of the community; inheritance was to be per mitted, and the individuals could expend the remuneration they received as they pleased. The government was to be with elective officers. Fourierism, though socialistic, is not properly socialism, and is related to modern socialism by its sharp criticism of existing conditions rather than by its plan for the future of society.
Fourierism won many converts in France: and so sanguine was its originator that for the last 10 years of his life he waited at noon every day in his apartments for the advent of the financial magnate who was to furnish means toward the realization of his scheme.
Among those who advocated the theory were Victor Considerant and Mennier; an associa tion was formed; a periodical, The Phalange, was published for a short time,• and a number of communities were organized in accordance with the Fourieristic plan, only one of which has survived the co-operative stove factory founded at Guise by Jean Godin, a disciple of Fourier, with its workmen's colony and phalanstery 400 families. Fourierism was introduced into the United States in 1842, by Albert Brisbane, who for a time published The Phalanx in New York. He was welcomed by the members of the Brook Farm community, and the Fourieristic organization was adopted there. For a time the Brook Farm Phalanx published The Harbinger, the most important periodical pub lished by the Fourierists in the United States. An organization, known as the American Union of Associationists, was formed for the "popular diffusion of the principles of the asso ciative sciences as discovered by Charles Fourier, with a view to their ultimate realiza tion by the establishment of phalanxes.° Horace Greeley (q.v.) became its president, and George Ripley (q.v.) secretary. A large convention of the 'cassociationists° was held in New York in 1844. In 1847 The Harbinger was transferred to New York under the charge of this association, and was published till 1849. About 34 communities were organized by the Fourierists, of which the most important (be sides Brook Farm) were the North American Phalanx, which lived 12 years, and the Wis consin Phalanx. Most of them existed but a short time, and by 1850 the Fourierist move ment had practicaly come to an end. Consult Bebel, 'Charles Fourier' ; Brisbane, 'Social Destiny of Man); Ely, 'French and German Socialism); Noyes, 'History of Ameri can Socialisms); Shaw, 'A Forgotten Social ism' (New England Magazine, new series Vol. VIII,_jo. 773). See BROOK FARM ; COM MUNISM ; NORTH AMERICAN PHALANX; SO CIALISM.