Prof. Franz Josef Stegmann Bethlehem Social ... - Ordo Socialis

Stegmann
tion of social conditions and objectives. The core of the model is the regulated competition
that promotes and guarantees economic efficiency and productivity. The supporters of this
model at the same time reject unlimited freedom in the marketplace, as well as the disregard
for social elements and social responsibility that always characterises old or palaeoliberal
capitalism. In comparison with classical economic liberalism, these European neoliberals
proposed remarkable reforms. They realised, for instance, that absolute freedom can damage,
cut down and even destroy competition, that competition has to be "established" and
promoted by a strong state, and that important human needs and values cannot be left to the
market. The state must safeguard competition by law, must compensate for socially negative
results of the economic process by social policy, and must make necessary changes in the
economic structure endurable by economic policy. Because of that, Social Market Economy
in neoliberal terms and what I call Manchester Capitalism are fundamentally different, and
Social Market Economy requires a powerful state. The essential difference between old or
palaeo liberalism and neoliberalism might be described as Wilhelm Röpke, one of the
founders of Social Market Economy, described it: "According to the palaeoliberal concept,
competition was a natural plant" growing by itself; "according to our neoliberal conviction, it
is a cultivated plant" 58 which must be tended, pruned and nursed.
3. SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY AND CHRISTIAN SOCIAL TEACHING
How does Christian Social Teaching judge Social Market Economy in European neoliberal
terms? First, I shall give a brief historical summary of the Catholic Church's attitude towards
market economy. I will then point out main aspects of how Social Market Economy in the
outlined neoliberal understanding is judged by Christian Social Teaching.
3.1 The Catholic Church and Market Economy
For a long time the attitude of the Church Magisterium towards competitive or market
economy was reserved and cautious. "Free competition, though justified and quite useful
within certain limits", the Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno of 1931 states, "cannot be the
guiding principle of economic life". Some translations read: free competition "cannot be the
ruling principle of the economic world" or "an adequate controlling principle in economic
affairs", The Latin text states: "Liberuni certamen...rem oeconomicarum dirigere nequit -
Free competition cannot direct the economy". lt is true, the Encyclical explains its statement
in the sense that "unregulated competition" cannot he "a principle of self-direction". 59 But all
in all, in the past the Church Magisterium was more or less reserved and sceptical towards
market and competition as such.
This attitude has changed greatly in recent years. I quote only a few voices: in 1985, Joseph
Cardinal Höffner of Cologne - for many years Professor of Christian Social Teaching and
then Chairman of the (German) Catholic Bishops, Conference - declared himself in favour of
"a socially tempered, socially oriented market economic order". 60 The Pastoral Letter
Centesimus Annus of 1991 judges "business economy, market economy or simply free
economy… certainly in the affirmative" sense, if it is "circumscribed within a strong juridical
framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality", Pope John Paul II
58 Quoted according to Oswald von Nell‐Breuning, Trennendes und Gemeinsames in den Hauptrichtungen der
Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Wirtschaftspolitik. in: Grundsatzfragen der Wirtschaftsordnung' Berlin 1954. 215‐
231, 218.
59 Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno (1931), No. 88.
60 Joseph Cardinal Höffner, Wirtschaftsordnung und Wirtschaftsethik. Richtlinien der katholischen Soziallehre.
Bonn 1985, 41.
26