Presentation of the subject for discussion

1. The world conferences organized by the United Nations in the last part of the 20th century represent an effort to define an agenda for public policy and international cooperation in a globalizing world. In particular, the World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen in March 1995, sought ways to promote and harmonize sustainable economic dynamism, social justice and solidarity. Though focused on the reduction of extreme poverty, the Millennium Declaration, adopted by the United Nations in 2000, also refers to the values of equality and solidarity.

2. In the last few years, however, the global agenda has been dominated, at least in the United Nations, by questions of security and the international conversation on the building of harmonious societies and a harmonious world community has been side-tracked. It is therefore all the more important that this conversation be pursued in a variety of forums, bringing together individuals and institutions with different experiences and cultures and a shared interest for the advent of a pluralistic and peaceful world society. The Copenhagen Seminars for Social Progress, convened a few years ago in the aftermath of the World Summit for Social Development, was one of these forums.

3. Key to these efforts is the idea that the economy ought to promote social justice and serve human needs and aspirations. Rather than an end in itself, economic activity is an indispensable means for both individual self-realization and collective accomplishment and harmony. This idea is obviously not new. All great civilizations have flourished from a strong and organized economic ground. Neither are new the difficulties inherent to its realization. Deification of the economy and neglect of its elementary working conditions are opposite but recurrent temptations. Today’s circumstances, however, make the task of building humane economies for harmonious societies both urgent and exceedingly difficult. Some of these circumstances are the following:

• The spirit of the time encourages a narrow perception of self-interest, with a focus on material wealth, its acquisition and consumption.
• Related is a conception of national interest that leaves little room for genuine cooperation and the active pursuit of common goals.
• Openness, of economies and societies, is imposed by the de-facto interdependence of regions and countries, but openness without fair and accepted “rules of the games” and institutions to enforce them, is simply ruling by the most powerful.
• Openness, so conceived and implemented, notably in the economic and financial domains, has been since several decades one of the causes of the observed overall aggravation of inequalities, within and among countries.
• Increased inequality, regarding the distribution of income as well as opportunities, social status, power and ultimately possibility for self-esteem (on the part of individuals, social groups or nations) threatens social cohesion and leads to alienation and fragmentation of societies and the world. Social justice and international justice are battered ideals.

The building of an authentic world community requires the free adhesion of politically and culturally independent partners meeting on the basis of shared values and shared objectives. Current trends appear to be pointing towards cultural uniformity – notably in the adhesion to morally and physically unsustainable styles of life and modes of consumption – and political fragmentation, as conflicts and violence are spreading.

4. In considering ways to approach these and comparable issues, participants may also wish to examine the following assumptions and convictions that underlie the work of the Copenhagen seminars and related undertakings:

Human nature is made of a great variety of needs and aspirations, from the most elementary to the most spiritual. None of these needs and aspirations can be ignored or suppressed without damage to the individual and the collectivity.

There is a fundamental equality, in terms of worth and dignity, among the members of the human family. Values, social mores, arts and expressions of creativity, political, economic and social arrangements are richly diverse and this diversity is a condition, not an obstacle, for the expression of the fundamental equality of all human beings. Human decency is a shared notion and aspiration.

Societies, including the universal society, or community of nations that is the ideal inscribed in the Charter of the United Nations, function harmoniously when a large variety of institutions respond to social requirements and individual’s or country’s needs and aspirations. Public institutions have, by definition, a particular responsibility for the pursuit of the common good, or general interest of their constituents. Political power implies responsibility and service to the collectivity.

Yet, in terms of morals, intentions, and consequences of one’s actions there is a continuum between the private and the public spheres of life and society. Critical are both the “interiorisation” of moral codes of conduct and their translation into laws and regulations that frame public activities and social relations. Freedom is always exercised in a social environment.

Economies, organized as they are through social institutions, including arrangements for the functioning of markets, ought to ensure (i) economic participation , that is work and employment opportunities for all, (ii) economic justice, or fair rewards for one’s economic activity, which is a prelude and a condition for social justice, (iii) economic morality, which is not only the avoidance of corruption but the positive application of a number of values by economic agents, and (iv) economic moderation, which, together with inventiveness and creativity, seems to be imposed by both the moral and spiritual exigencies of the person and the requirements of the protection of the integrity of the planet.

5. On this basis, the agenda of the seminar could be articulated around the following three themes:

• Characteristics of humane economies serving harmonious societies
• Openness of economies and societies and cultural autonomy
• Self-interest, national interest and the pursuit of the common good in a pluralistic world.