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Globalization, Justice and Solidarity: an Ethical Approach to the Cotton Market in Benin in Light of Catholic Social Teaching

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Globalization, Justice and Solidarity: an Ethical Approach to the Cotton Market in Benin in Light of Catholic Social Teaching Globalization, justice and solidarity: an ethical approach to the cotton market in Benin in light of Catholic social teaching Author: Henri Elphège Léon Quenum Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/1861 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2010 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. BOSTON COLLEGE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY AND MINISTRY S.T.L. THESIS GLOBALIZATION, JUSTICE AND SOLIDARITY: An Ethical Approach to the Cotton Market in Benin in Light of Catholic Social Teaching Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Licentiate in Sacred Theology Student: HENRI ELPHÈGE LÉON QUENUM Director: THOMAS MASSARO, SJ Second Reader: NIMI WARIBOKO Boston, April 9, 2010 Table of Contents GENERAL INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 3 I. THE FREE GLOBALIZING MARKET AND ITS WEAKNESSES: THE COTTON MARKET IN BENIN ............ 9 I.1. The Free Market: The Missing Social Good ............................................................................................. 10 I.1.1. Human Flourishing and the Right to Private Property: The Necessary Social Dimension of the Goods 10 I.1.2. The Capitalist Market: An Economic System Based on Freedom and Its Discontents .......................... 14 I.2. Cotton Market, Justice and Inequalities in Benin ...................................................................................... 20 I.2.1. Improvement and Modernization of Benin Cotton Production through the Global Market ................. 21 I.2.2. Liberalization of the Cotton Sector: a Competitive Market and Deregulation ..................................... 24 I.3. The “Homo Economicus” and the African Approach to Human Personhood ............................................... 32 I.3.1. The Approach to the Person in the Free Market .............................................................................. 32 I.3.2. Business and Human Being in African Perspectives ........................................................................... 34 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 39 II. JUSTICE AND WEALTH DISTRIBUTION: ETHICAL CONCERNS ............................................................ 41 II.1. Justice as Entitlement and the Theory of Utilitarianism ............................................................................ 41 II.1.1. Entitlement and Agreement in Free Exchange ................................................................................. 41 II.1.2. The Greater Utility for the Greater Number ................................................................................... 47 II.2. Need Satisfaction, Fairness and Freedom .............................................................................................. 51 II.2.1. Needs – Based Justice ................................................................................................................... 51 II.2.2 Fairness and Freedom .................................................................................................................... 54 II.3. Economic Justice in the Christian Perspective ........................................................................................ 63 II.3.1. Human Dignity and Sociality: The Marker of Christian Economic Justice ........................................ 63 II.3.2. Participation: A Key Dimension of Christian Approaches to Economic Justice .................................. 66 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 69 1 III. ECONOMY AND TRADE IN SOLIDARITY AND FOR THE COMMON GOOD: THE CATHOLIC CONTRIBUTION ..................................................................................................................................... 71 III.1. Solidarity and Common Good: Biblical foundations ................................................................................ 71 III.1.1. A Covenantal Society: Toward a Promised Land for the Good of All. ............................................. 71 III.1.2. Imitating Christ’s Impoverishment and Expressing Concerns for the Neighbor ................................ 76 III.2. Solidarity and Common Good: Catholic Approach to Economy ................................................................ 81 III.2.1. Solidarity: A Way to Live Christian Faith in Economic Life ........................................................... 81 III.2.2. Common Good: A Good of and for the Individual and of and for the Society ................................. 86 III.3. New Policies to Build a New Global Economic System ........................................................................... 89 III.3.1. Protection of Small Business in Environment dominated by an Emphasis on Economic Incentives ..... 90 III.3.2. An International Monetary System for the Improvement of All ...................................................... 95 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 97 GENERAL CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 99 BIBLIORGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................................... 104 Books .................................................................................................................................................. 104 Articles and Online Resources ............................................................................................................... 108 2 GENERAL INTRODUCTION Globalization is a social and economic fact. It is best described as the ascendancy of the free market regulated by supply and demand. By the manner in which trade has been extended, along with the ease of financial investing and reinvesting and the migration of people, globalization has engineered a global growth and stimulated the creation of wealth in such a way that for many it “has been an economic godsend,” “a common climb to the top, a rising tide raising all boats.”1 However the growth generated has not always benefited all nations. The African countries, including Benin, have been deeply hurt by the negative aspects of globalization and they have been marginalized by increasing poverty, inequality and injustice resulting from the expansion of privatization and liberalization. These negative impacts of globalization were one of the main concerns of the October 2009 African Synod of the Roman Catholic bishops. The Instrumentum Laboris of this African Assembly acknowledged that African societies are partly responsible for and partly victims of their own economic problems. But this same synod observed that globalization is tending to marginalize Africa and that “to speak of problems and solutions in Africa is impossible without considering the other continents, their economic institutions, financiers and their network of information, all of which have a considerable impact on African Society.”2 A practical example of the operation and mechanism of the globalizing economy is the situation of the global cotton market in which the Benin Republic, a West African country, is involved. The global cotton market has strengthened Benin cotton production with new techniques and assistance, but it has 1 Albino Barrera, Globalization and Economics Ethics: Distributive Justice in the Knowledge Economy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 1-2. 2 II Special Assembly for Africa, Instrumentum Laboris, no 13. 3 weakened the economic situation of local farmers and it is creating a favorable social context for conflict and intolerance. Indeed, despite the growth resulting from the increased production of cotton, the free market system has had a deteriorating effect on the Beninese economy. It has seen an increase in poverty and caused great environmental damages. In reference to the economic crisis which affects Benin and other African societies in an acute manner, the observations given in the Instrumentum Laboris require that a thorough analysis of the global market be made. What is the mechanism of the free market? What are its principles and values? How does it influence the manner in which justice is distributed and safeguarded in the cotton market, particularly in Benin? What ethical problems does it raise? What ethical insights and values of the Catholic Church in Benin and Catholic Social Teaching in general provide assistance in understanding and dealing with the impact of the free market on the economic life of the citizens? One assumption which undergirds the global free market is that the human being chooses to act rationally. “Human beings are assumed to behave rationally,”3 is the common observation that includes the corollary that all persons work to maximize self-interest. On the basis of this assumption, the market is supposed to regulate itself in conformity to supply and demand. A market of competition is then set up in which capital and transnational corporations control global trade and in which African countries are subject to the fiat of the strongest countries and foreign corporations. Indeed,
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