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Commentary :: Globalization

Globalization and the Social State

The economiy exists for people, not vice versa. The economy needs a framework offering orienta-tion to economic actors and showing the limits of the tolerable. This framework is not a limitation of freedom but the necessary condition for successful economic conduct. The market and econo-mic success can become anti-divine principles.
GLOBALIZATION AND THE SOCIAL STATE

By Manfred Koch

[This address from May 19, 2003 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, www.ekd.de/vortraege/154_030519_kock_globalisierung.html. Manfred Koch was the 2003 chairperson of the Evangelical church in Germany.]


Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for your friendly welcome. Two weeks ago I was in Hamburg for the funeral service for Dorothee Soelle. I’d like to consciously remember her at the outset of my contribution. Ms. Soelle focused our churches on the importance of worldwide solidarity for our material and spiritual life. She described the consequences of our economic activity for the people in Africa, Latin America and Asia. She underlined the significance of piety for the survival of people there. She emphasized the role of the poor churches in the development history of the poor countries of the South, one of the serious challenges connected with the phenomenon of globality or globalization.

One doesn’t have to agree with her analysis in detail. Like few others, she thought together theology, the economy and politics and showed the consequences for future generations. She demonstrated moral responsibility and fought for more justice. Dorothee did not hold any official office within the Evangelical church. Still her persistent admonitions had an effect within our church.

Beside the economy that seeks to make money out of worldwide trade, there is hardly any other comparably broad area of our society that has critically reflected international connections and developments as the Christian churches. Through alert and passionate persons like Dorothee Soelle, we have become moral admonishers in the community of the ecumene.

While some say: the economy is everything since without it everything is nothing, the churches remind us that the economy is not everything.

In the first part, I emphasize that globalization is organized by people and is not a phenomenon breaking fatefully upon the world.

In the second part, I name criteria for a just organization of the world economy.

In the third part, I focus on consequences for the organization of the social state.

I. GLOBALIZATION IS NOT A FATE – THE ECONOMY NEEDS ORGANIZATION

The freedom of the economy has its limits in the question of worldwide economic and social justice.

This theme has developed into an urgent political and international theme in the last decades negotiated at great international conferences. I refer to the UN conference on sustainability and development in Johannesburg in the fall of 2002. According to media accounts, rioting occurred there withy the two addresses that on first view could hardly be more different and on second view reveal common problems.

The first speech was from the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. Mugabe is now one of Africa’s worst dictators. We watched the situation in Zimbabwe very carefully since the 1998 plenary assembly of the World Council of Churches in Harare. Zimbabwe could be a rich country but was driven into hunger by the policy of Mugabe. In his speech, Mugabe prohibited all interference in the internal affairs of his country, particularly by the British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In the community of the European Union, Blair protested against the illegal expropriation of white farmers in Zimbabwe and imposed sanctions. The rioting arose through the loud approval of delegates from countries of the South who interpreted the pressure on Mugabe uncritically as interference from the North and resolved to protest.

The second speech that brought rioting was the speech of the US Secretary of State Powell. After the US withdrew its signature to the Kyoto protocol, Powell claimed a leadership role of the US in questions of protecting the atmosphere and sustainability. The rioting was mainly triggered by the US activists in the audience who – disappointed by the American position – protested loudly against Powell’s speech.

Several decades ago, ladies and gentlemen, we hardly knew anything about events a week after the end of a conference in South Africa. We had to wait a few weeks until the first ship arrived with eyewitnesses of the meeting. Today we learn all the information about this conference almost simultaneously with the event. We are informed electronically like no generation before. The other side of the information speed and abundance is that everything is forgotten a few days later. This double effect – the instantaneous transport of information to all corners of the earth and the accelerated aging of news – is a characteristic of globalization. The political and economic consequences give us headaches. The course of things seems to have passed over us without our being seriously influenced by its explosiveness. Globalization has two faces: “Globalization produces injustice and fears and also brings us advantages, has hidden chances and awakens hopes” (the synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), November 2001).

When globalization is discussed today, economic globalization and more narrowly the increasing domination of all areas of life by economic questions and largely anonymous economic processes occurring on the international plane are emphasized. The economy or the free market has become a new religion for many. I oppose this because I confess there is no other God than the Trinitarian God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The economy may not and cannot replace religion that seeks to bring people into conversation with God. I also oppose an idolization of the supposedly free market because the market from my perspective is only a means to an end. Ethical criteria must be applied. The market can and must be formed according to ethical criteria.

Whether “globalization” has catastrophic consequences or represents a chance for the future is not a question of fate or forces of nature. Globalization results are always direct or indirect results of human actions and omissions. The success and failure of globalization are closely related to conditions, agreements and treaties realized in political ways. Power interests collaborate and seek general conditions according to their particular needs. The conditions of economic conduct can always be influenced politically. What are controversial are only how much freedom of the market and how much national and international political organization are necessary so as many people as possible can share in the success.

Berman businessmen emphasize again and again that social peace in our country, the liberal constitution of our society, location advantages, the high education standard and the efficiency of economic actors are essential. One of the great hopes connected with the political union and expansion of the European Union (EU) is that the German location advantage may expand and disadvantageous regions may share in growth. Can that historical experience be a model for the organization of general world economic conditions?

German export-oriented businesses underline the competition of locations on the international market. I see a commonality in the two scenes of rioting. We are bound today across national borders. This worldwide solidarity has elements of competition and elements of law and justice, particularly the protection of human rights in other countries. This solidarity includes elements of protection from the unintended effects of climate change. However this global consciousness also has elements of power and powerlessness, defending against dangers and securing particular interests. All these elements must be seen in their interaction for a sober and realistic assessment of globalization’s aftereffects.

II. GLOBALIZATION NEEDS GENERAL CONDITIONS TO BE HUMANLY-FRIENDLY

All people are God’s beloved children. Therefore the element of mutual responsibility, care for one another, action against hunger and distress, sickness and death is central. For that reason, the churches in Germany are engaged in questions of economic ethics regarding the international consequences of our conduct.

Ten years ago after the fall of the wall and the collapse of the state economy in communist countries, the word globalization was still largely unknown in Germany. Different groups in the Evangelical Church in Germany discussed economic questions and published a memorandum titled “Public Interest and Se4lf-Interest.” The following statements from that memorandum are helpful today:

1. The economy is not a space free of responsibility. In the economy, people take responsibility for other people and the society. This is also responsibility before God.
2. Profit-orientation and competition are instruments that serve the goal of providing goods and securing existence.
3. Profit-orientation and competition lead to economical relations with money and idols and limitation of power since producers and traders must necessarily orient themselves in the needs of consumers. However striving for profit and competition do not lead automatically to social justice since the tendency to be seduced by material goods of life and the brilliance of money is part of human sinfulness. This has consequences for the economically weak and effects on the living conditions of coming generations.

Profit-orientation and competition, money and property are not sinful in themselves. Rather their unjust use is stressed when Holy Scripture speaks of the idol mammon, the symbol for this sinful world attitude that is seduced by material goods.

The market and economic success become anti-divine principles where absolute priority is given to the “free market” over social and ecological compatibility, where arms exports are promoted without regard for the intensification of conflicts and where oil is favored without concern for culture and nature. Giving honor to God means resisting the superior force of the economy and setting limits to the power of money.

The economy exists for people, not vice versa. For that reason, the economy needs a framework offering orientation to economic actors and showing the limits of the tolerable. This framework is not a limitation of freedom but the necessary condition for successful economic conduct. The civil law that protects contracts according to binding criteria, the civil law that makes possible the enforcement of legitimate demands, the international right of contract and international agreements on air and ship traffic and postal and radio connections, compulsory education and the state education structure preparing highly trained workers are all part of this framework. The infrastructure, the protection of property, the intactness of the person by the police and the military and a supportive value system are also indispensable conditions. Whoever urges undifferentiatingly a completely free market puts these rules in question. Only mafia and corrupt systems want this. States in which all the orders break down do not offer any structures and rules. Lastly, organized gangsterism profits from that collapse since it paradoxically goes beyond enforceable rules.

Our Christian view of the person knows very clearly the human susceptibility to seduction and the power of sin. This is true for everyone bearing special responsibility in society and the state. Whoever desires reduced state controls must also grapple with the phenomena of economic criminality and corruption. While the “list” of the corruption susceptibility of states published in 2002 may not be convincing in detail, Germany can and must improve in this regard. State and public controls are urgently necessary.

In my firm belief, the economy needs a framework on four planes:

1. Every individual sets the first framework for our economy through individual consumer conduct and conduct as a citizen and Christian. How will I live? How will I work? What is important to me? How much consumption do I need? These are the questions that we must answer ourselves.
2. The second framework is set by society and by the values in which it orients life together. In Germany and most countries of Europe, the balance of freedom and justice led to the formation of the social market economy.
3. The politics that helps secure these values through laws and rules sets the third framework. Politics should secure what is important for future generations beyond the interests of the day. This third framework cannot only be worked out today in the nation-state consensus and within the existing legal system. A broad international consensus is vital for global economic conduct. Binding rules of an international commercial law must be configured on the basis of that consensus.
4. The fourth framework is a world-political framework. All political efforts to eliminate globalization risks may not only be guided by the interest in avoiding crises only in developed industrial countries. These efforts may not only be concentrated in the regions of the earth that are interesting for industrial nations on account of their raw materials. The world-political framework must include all continents and aim at improving the living conditions of the weak.

There is evidence that this fourth framework is ignored. Terrorism guided by rival power elites makes use of the global discontent. Streams of refugees from war and poverty areas are often curbed in emergency with contempt for humanitarian principles. Influential power elites in some countries offer incentives for investments to businesses with the lure of lax rules for the environment and social responsibility.

In the Joint Declaration of the EKD and the German Bishops’ conference titled “For a Future in Solidarity and Justice”, the churches urged “that solidarity and justice be acknowledged as crucial standards of a future-friendly and sustainable economic and social policy… Solidarity and justice are the core of every biblical- and Christian ethic.”

Making this desire heard is important, the concerns of the poor, disadvantaged and powerless of the coming generations and the silent creation. “These economic and political concerns can be easily forgotten because they cannot be articulated effectively.”

Structures of social assistance are vital, not only the social engagement of individuals.

III. THE LONG-TERM RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOCIAL STATE AND THE RESPONSIBLE ORGANIZATION OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

These ethical criteria for an order of the economy are valid nationally and internationally. In Germany, there are disadvantaged and excluded persons that deserve our special attention. The basic idea of our social state is that people falling completely out of the community and into life-threatening poverty should be prevented through joint collaboration.

People can also fall out of the middle of society. Therefore social insurances protect against the great elementary life risks to which we are all exposed. These tasks continue in times of increasing economic internationalization. Globalization includes chances and risks affecting our social state. The chances lie in the new possibilities of learning from one another and perhaps coming to better assessment of our problems. The risks lie in the undeniably increased competition, especially for jobs. This competition should not be absolutized. There are considerable parts of the economy and many jobs that for different reasons can never be moved abroad. As long as persons are the main actors on the markets, there will always be limits of mobility.

The need for change in our social state results from the conditions of globalization. The need to fundamentally change the social state to maintain it results from our own developments. I cite only the demographic development. The massive decline of the number of children in our society is not connected to globalization. Nevertheless this development shows that our old age provision system must be reformed or it will break down. Offering individual proposals or taking political positions is not the task of the Evangelical Church. Nevertheless an urgent need for reform exists here. These reforms must include changes on the expenditure- or benefit side. These could be called “social cuts.” In my opinion, evangelical ethics does not teach that all change of living- or transfer standards is ethically reprehensible. On the contrary, whoever spends more than he can legitimately claim does not act in a socially responsible way. I find the proposal very shocking – though it is meant seriously – to increase the already intolerable state indebtedness and thus burden our children with immense debts so our advanced standard is not put in question.

Churches are advocates of the weak and poor. Therefore resistance against a globalization in which the freedom of the market has become the supreme maxim is growing in the churches and especially in the ecumenical movement. The church declarations do not put in question globalization in its totality. There is serious criticism particularly from church development assistance and ecumenical partnership work. However returning to screened national economies would be absurd. Demanding this return is unrealistic. In the conflicts around globalization, the winners of global economic freedom must be motivated through nation-state and multinational regulations to make reasonable contributions for ecological sustainability and more social justice.
Those who plead loudly for economic liberalization and state deregulation must expect our protest where international competition threatens and protective measures for our own products are demanded or defended. Protectionism of every kind deserves criticism, particularly protectionism towards imports from so-called developing countries that are repeatedly disadvantaged. The economy would win credibility if its whole weight were applied for fairer trade conditions.

In the meantime there is great theoretical agreement in politics and the economy that globalization needs political control. A balance of social-political, ecological and economic goals should be sought. However little is happening in reality. The UN conference of Johannesburg identified the global problems without agreeing on binding common action. Politics’ visible lack of credibility here strengthens those critics of globalization who have long decried the superior force of the private economy over against the parliamentary authorities. The short-term special or vested interests of national policy often prevent a political control of globalization through binding international agreements.

Politics must build international structures and set political framing conditions for worldwide economic conduct so more people can profit from globalization than in the past. The global market could be a model of the social market economy on a world scale in which trade and the economy are obliged to social and environmental compatibility and subjected to democratic control.

More than other organizations of civil society, the churches through their ecumenical solidarity across state borders have the possibility for worldwide cooperation in pursuing positive globalization goals. On the basis of their common faith, the churches in all political contexts are obligated to the basic value of solidarity and to a culture of peace, social justice and preservation of creation. This is their unmistakable contribution for a positive understanding of globalization. This is based on a Christian ethic that does not abandon creation to the grip of supposed practical necessities.

There are already many beginnings and initiatives, for example through fair trade, Bread for the World, responsible association with energy and the land belonging to churches and engagement for civil peace service.

I hope the different movements and initiatives will grow closer together. Peace, justice and preservation of creation are inseparably connected and belong together. People are engaged from different starting-points.

With the terror attack of September 11, 2001, we realize more clearly than before that we live in a world where peace and security, prosperity and justice can only be attained together and for everyone – or cannot ultimately be assured for anyone.

The church proclaims the Good News of the liberation of humankind from sin and corruption. Christians who live from this liberating message cooperate in continuing God’s creative acts that did not end with the Sabbath rest on the 7th day. God does not leave the world to violence and the right of the stronger. He does not hand it over to short-sighted human interests but as an advocate of life and peace shows new perspectives for our action, ways out of the cul-de-sacs of systems that no longer serve people but enslave them. God is interested in our freedom. Wherever something positive succeeds, this is a sign of God’s promise that the new heaven and the new earth cast their rays of light before us.
 
 

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