Globalization And Inequalities
by Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences will hold its Eighth Plenary Session in the Vatican from the 8th to the 13th of April 2002. The session will be attended by most of the 34 academicians, coming from all continents, each specialized in one or two of the main social science disciplines.
The Academy was established in January 1994 by Pope John Paul II with the aim of promoting the study and progress of social sciences, primarily economics, sociology, law and political science, and of thus offering the Church the elements which she can use in the development of her social doctrine. In order to efficiently organize its activities, the Academy selected since its first meeting four major themes about which it meant to bring to light and to deepen those parts of knowledge, which, acquired by social sciences, should be most relevant for the teaching of the Church. These themes are designated as: work and employment, democracy, globalization, intergenerational solidarity.
This year the programme of the session is atypical. It is made of three seminars, or roundtables, which will follow each other and approach different themes: first globalization, then democracy, finally intergenerational solidarity. The choice for such a diversified programme may be explained: we realized that, at the present stage, reasons, peculiar to each case, made it desirable to take stock in each case thanks to a shorter meeting than are our plenary sessions.
Organized by Professor Academician Louis Sabourin (Canada) the seminar about globalization serves two functions. On the one hand, the purpose is to prepare decisions which will have to be taken concerning the continuation of the research programme on this theme, and, to start with, decisions about the subjects to be discussed at the 2003 plenary session, entirely devoted to globalization. On the other hand, the seminar gives an opportunity of complementing in two respects what was accomplished and published in 2000 under the title: "The social dimensions of globalization" and in 2001 under "Globalization — Ethical and institutional concerns". This year the Academy is again considering the analysis of poverty and inequalities, studying not only the description of actual changes but also the parts played in them by international trade and financial relations. The Academy will also hear the testimonies of persons and non-governmental institutions which are active in the Third World or implicated in inter-religious dialogues.
Five papers deal with the analysis of poverty and in equalities. They will be delivered respectively by Professor Denis Goulet of Notre Dame University (United States), by Professor Academician Juan Llach, former Argentinian Minister of Education, by Mr. Michel Camdessus (France), former Director general of IMF, by Mr. Ablassé Oùedraogo, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Burkina Faso, and by Professor Rubens Ricupero, Secretary general of UNCTAD, former Finance Minister of Brazil.
The roundtable dealing with the theme of democracy is addressed to the question of knowing how the Academy should now turn to good account its past exchanges on this theme, which were organized by Professor Academician Hans Zacher (Germany). Three meetings were devoted to study the contemporary problems of democracy: a seminar in December 1996 and two plenary sessions. It is now time to draw from this work proposals about the social doctrine of the Church. For so doing, the Academy decided to first obtain advice from experts who did not take part in past meetings but would judge their outcome as it appears in the three volumes of proceedings. Each expert agreed to write a short report in which he evaluates the published material and derives from it conclusions about proposals that the Academy could make to the Magisterium. The roundtable will be busy with the presentation and discussion of the three reports.
Professor Bernal Restrepo, Novak and Weiler were kind enough to so assist the Academy.
We will organize the roundtable in four parts: "Values and the value of democracy", "Democracy and civil society", "Democracy, welfare and the international community", "The message of the Academy: to whom should it be addressed and how should it be propagated?" Each part will begin with presentation of their views by the three experts and continue with a general discussion.
Although the decision of working in the future on the theme of intergenerational solidarity was taken already in November 1994, the Academy had not yet undertaken its study, since up to the last year a higher priority was given to the other selected themes. The third specialized meeting in this session, organized by Professor Academician Edmond Malinvaud (France), so has the objective to initiate a new programme, in the same way as the seminars of December 1996 and February 2000 had done, respectively for the themes of democracy and globalization.
As with previous programmes we must start from the existing state of the social doctrine of the Church. Whereas for the three themes earlier approached the initial report was prepared by an Academician belonging to the clergy, we are experimenting this time with a note prepared by a lay academician. It is meant to provide a rough draft, which will be first discussed by members of the Academy who belong to the clergy. These academicians were asked to give precise directions for improving and complementing the essay.
Some academicians accepted to write the five other papers to be examined in the seminar. They are Pierluigi Zampetti on "A new model for the role of the family in the state", Pierpaolo Donati on "Intergenerational equity: a new social norm", Partha Dasgupta on "The natural environment", Mina Ramirez and Wilfrido Villacorta on "Duties to teenagers and young adults", finally José Raga Gil on "A new shape for the welfare state". These various contributions ought to set up a panorama that will be useful for a general discussion. Then the academicians will deal with organizing the new programme for the next few years.
© L'Osservatore Romano, Editorial and Management Offices, Via del Pellegrino, 00120, Vatican City, Europe, Telephone 39/6/698.99.390.
This item 4220 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
