mercoledì 20 gennaio 2010

 

Twenty years after the collapse of communism, the ongoing crisis of capitalism which has plunged Europe into the worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression offers a unique opportunity to chart an alternative path. In a remarkable speech, Herman Van Rompuy – the EU's recently appointed first president – has outlined such an alternative by drawing on ideas shared by European Christian Democrats and Christian Socialists. This has the potential to transform the ongoing debate on how best to reform the EU's ailing economy.

 

Van Rompuy's argument is that both capitalist free-market and socialist central planning policies fail because they are based on a false account of human nature. Human beings are neither bare individuals who pursuit private profit through market competition, nor are we anonymous parts of a monolithic collective controlled by the state.

 

The real, true account of the human person must be about our social bonds which discipline us and make us the unique persons we all are. At their best, the bonds of family, neighbourhood, local community, professional associations, nation and faith help instil civic virtues and a shared sense of purpose. Concretely, this means solidarity and a commitment to the common good in which all can participate – from a viable ecology via universal education and healthcare to a wider distribution of assets and other means to pursue true happiness beyond pleasure and power.

 

Christian conceptions of God stress the relations between the three divine persons of the Holy Trinity. Therefore, the belief that we are all made in the image and likeness of a personal, "relational" creator God translates into an emphasis on the strong bonds of mutual help and reciprocal giving. For true Christians, charity is never about handing out alms to the poor and feeling better about oneself. Rather, it is about an economy of gift-exchange where people assist each other – not based on economic utility or legal obligation but in a spirit of free self-giving and receiving by members of a social body greater than its parts.

 

Nor is this some sort of religious utopia. Guilds, cooperatives and employee-owned businesses in parts of Italy, Germany, France or Spain demonstrate the concrete reality of a mixed economy that combines gift-giving with economic exchange. In Britain, there are grassroots initiatives to apply this approach to public services and welfare provision, as Jonathan Freedland has noted. The idea is to foster civic participation based on self-organisation, social enterprise, reciprocity and mutuality which help produce a sense of shared ownership. This approach seeks to balance liberty and responsibility as well as rights and duties.

 

Whereas state models reduce people to needy recipients of public benefits and market models degrade citizens to passive consumers of private services, the real "third way" proposed by Van Rompuy encourages active, voluntary membership of people who give as well as receive.

 

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