4 Santalka. Filosofija. 2009, t. 17, nr. 1.

ISSN 1822-430X print/1822-4318 online

EUROPEAN VALUES AND GLOBALIZATION

Heinz Theisen

University of Applied Science, Cologne, Department of Political Science

E-mail: h.theisen@kathonrw.de

Good Governance, Social Market Economy, Culture and Education are the decisive elements for Human
Development. We need a third way between the extremes of the Utopian Global Free Market and a new
nationalism. A Social Market Economy and the European Model of a Union could be such third way. For a
new Social Market Economy we need a renaissance of the European dialectics between culture and society,
idealism and materialism, religion and enlightenment, solidarity and profitability. The balancing of those
poles is deeply rooted in our best traditions.
There are different sectors of public life following different signals and not only one economic signal for all of
them. Different sectors of our public life should be in a sustainable balance. We have to search for new com
promises beyond flexibility and security (Flexicurity), beyond competition and cooperation (Coopetition).

Keywords: Global Free Market, Failing State, corruption, Constitutional State, Good Governance, Social Mar-
ket Economy, reciprocity, balance, education, globalization, Flexicurity, Coopetition, Complementarities.

DOI: 10.3846/1822-430X.2009.17.1.4-11

Limits to Globalization

The global free market is not the result of productivity is the best measure of economic
competition between different economic sys- efficiency, but lacked their understanding that
tems. Like the free market that was created in productivity alone does not make a humanly
England in the mid-nineteenth century, it was acceptable economy (Fukuyama 2004).
established and maintained by political power. Nowadays even for the United States of
Unlike its English precursor, the global free America the global free market is no longer the
market lacks checks and balances. Insulated priority. The Europeans recognise that China
from any kind of political accountability, it is and Japan use the best of globalization and leave
much too brittle to last for long. the rest. It is probably only a matter of time be-
The idea of a global free market is the off- fore trade returns to being a matter of bilateral
spring of a marriage of positivist economies negotiations among governments. At worst a
with the American sense of universal mission. tit-for-tat protectionism would be the other ex-
Positivism means the idea that mathematics is treme to globalization and to a new nationalism,
the model for every branch of scientific knowl- as a result new wars could happen.
edge. In economics, this methodology finds The Utopian dream that in the global free
expression in the idea of efficiency. American market all limits to growth will disappear has
economists followed Positivism in thinking that gone. Nowadays the limits to growth return in
 Santalka. Filosofija, 2009, 17(1): 411 5

the form of energy politics. 21st century wars fastest growing sectors of advanced western
will be the wars over resources, made more economies are illegal industries such as drugs,
dangerous and intractable by being intertwined prostitution and cyber-fraud. Furthermore,
with ethnic and religious enmities. Over the Russia can exploit its energy resources for a
coming century, global warming may well new kind of superpower politics, as it already
overtake scarcity in energy supplies as a source did towards the Ukraine.
of geopolitical conflict. In some areas it means We should not learn from market fun-
desertification, in others flood. Food produc- damentalism of the International Monetary
tion is likely to be disrupted. These changes in Fund (IMF). As it does everywhere, the IMF
the physical landscape will trigger large move- demands fiscal austerity. However, no matter
ments of population, as people attempt to flee that the problems are different their solutions
to zones of safety. are always the same. The IMF aims to install the
There is a tension between two spheres of same sort of capitalism everywhere. Inevitably,
globalization. Free capital flow coexists with given the diverse histories and circumstances
stringent restrictions on the movement of peo- of the countries that have been subject to its
ple. By the late nineties, this combination was policies, this goal has proved an illusion. The
leading to large-scale illegal immigration. At failing economy and the political anarchy in
the beginning of the 21st century, the pattern of some third world countries and the increasing
global conflict is shaped by population growth, economy of China or Korea demonstrate that
shrinking energy supplies and irreversible cli- it is not enough to build new bridges and new
mate change, ethnic and religious enmities as institutions, to promote and to finance projects
well as the collapse or corrosion of the state in of the often corrupt elite, to ask for balanced
many parts of the world. budgets and to cut subsidies.
The modern state is defined by its monopoly The spreading of corruption is the antithesis
of organized violence. But in many parts of the to competitiveness and cooperation. Real prop-
world it does not hold the monopoly anymore. erty rights exist only in constitutional states,
Governments are at risk of losing control in combination with the rights of freedom of
over weapons of mass destruction. Hundreds the individual and in combination with their
of millions of people are living in conditions protection by the state. The constitutional state
of semi-anarchy. In much of Africa, parts of is even more important than democracy. It is
post-communist Russia, in Afghanistan and the framework for development. Therefore it is
Pakistan, in Latin American countries such not enough to build a semi-democracy like the
as Columbia and Haiti and even in regions of Russians did. Democracies without rule of law
Europe, such as Bosnia and Kosovo, Chechnya are mostly even more corrupt than dictator-
and Albania, there is nothing resembling an ships, because a lot of different parties are trying
effective modern state. to exploit the resources of the nation.
First we have to learn what we should not There should be no either-or between
learn from each others. Russia has failed to socialism and liberalism, between state and
catch up with the West. But maybe Russia is market economy. The problem is that although
on its way to surpass it. The transition from states need to be restricted in certain areas,
central planning to western-style free market they simultaneously need to be strengthened in
has failed, but the mafia-based economy that others. The state-building agenda is as impor-
emerged from the ruins of the Soviet state has tant as the state-reducing one. The problem of
evolved into a hypermodern type of capitalism. Neoliberalism lies in a basic conceptual failure
Because of its origin in crime, Russian capital- to realise the different dimensions of stateness
ism is well adapted to grow at a time when the and how they relate to economic development
(Fukuyama 2004).
6 Heinz Theisen European values and globalization

European Values as Precondition of a as incommensurable before. Instead of social

Social Market Economy conflicts cooperation becomes the prevailing
organization at form of both the economical
We can see more clearly now, that the wealth and social spheres.
and poverty of nations, the question, why Provided that there is an agreement about
some are rich and some are poor, finds many the idea of the Social Market Economy, politi-
answers in cultural and political precondi- cal parties, as a result, all move more closely to
tions. In political terms, this means that Good the Centre. By losing the balance between the
Governance, Social Market Economy, Culture poles we become Utopians and those who try to
and Education are the decisive elements for implement Utopia become necessarily totalitar-
Human Development. We need a third way ian. We can interpret the totalitarian answers
between the extremes of a Utopian Global Free to that confusion as an attempt to enforce the
Market and a new nationalism. I believe that recombination of the separated subsystems.
a Social Market Economy and the European But this way, like fundamentalism, destroys the
Model of a Union could be such a third way. complexities of and the chances for complemen-
The European culture is a good precondi- tarities. It destroys pluralism. We can compare
tion for that, because at its core is the balance the fundamentalism of today with the totalitar-
between the poles of idealism and material- ian answers to failing modernization processes
ism, individualism and solidarity, ethics and during the 20th century.
science, rights and duties, individual interests On the other hand, a total neoliberal sepa-
and commonalities, national and supranational ration of the subsystems leads to the kind of
interests, religion and enlightenment and last secularism, which nowadays constitutes a moral
but not least, between social state and market crisis. If there are no interactions between reli-
economy. gion and politics, economy and ethics, science
The Neoliberals of the post world war and culture, individualism and society, the
period in Germany (the most well-known of sustainability of this culture is in real danger. A
whom is Ludwig Erhard), took the prevailing lot of people even in the West believe that this
best ideas from the traditional viewpoints and pluralistic culture is in a moral and cultural de-
transported them into a cooperative relation- cline. We have a lot of socio-cultural problems
ship incorporating competing ideas. Social like stagnating and aging populations, huge
Market Economy takes from Socialism the government deficits, declining work ethics,
accentuation of the social aspect and the dig- social disintegration, drugs and crime.
nity of labour, from Classical Liberalism - the
freedom of the individual and the coordination
of decentralised decisions by the market, from Social Values and Good Governance
Catholic Social Doctrine - the unempeachibil-
ity of a person, the subsidiary and the idea of The wealth of a nation depends to a high degree
property serving public interests and from the on its organizational capacities. For a Social
Evangelical Social Doctrine - the professional Market Economy not mineral resources and
ethics and the thrift. not the amount of land or people are impor-
The putative contrasts should not be an- tant, but the quality of human capital and the
nulled by utopian dialectic, but should be human resources decide the quality of life. The
supplemented in a tension-rich cooperation. richest nation in the world - per head capital - is
The originality of the Social Market Economy Switzerland, a small country of seven million
finds its reason not in a specific idea, but in the inhabitants - without any mineral resources,
mutual complementation of ideas regarded with four different ethnic groups and four
 Santalka. Filosofija, 2009, 17(1): 411 7

different languages. They must be doing some- property rights there will be no ambition to
thing right. develop this land. It is not important which state
Good Governance means the reciprocity grants the property rights. What is important is
between economy and society. It is more than for this state to be a constitutional state and that
Good Government by a good administra- there is a kind of Good Governance1 (Theisen,
tion (this is only a small part of it) and it is not Mustafa 2006).
the romantic idea of the political left, that the The constitutional state is not a secondary
common people are better and wiser than the condition for democracy and market economy.
elite, which is why everything has to be decided Instead, it is the precondition of both. The
by the people. Good Governance means the law is the condition of freedom. Without a
reciprocity of the different subsystems of soci- constitutional state, there is no security for
ety - between religion and politics, culture and private property and investment, without an
economy, state and society, state and science, independent system of justice and an effective
state and market economy. civil service there will be neither stability nor
To the ideal of Good Governance belong: sustainable development. A market economy
the separation of private and public without a framework by the state means not
interests, freedom but anarchy. Not the best but the most
the transparency of political decisions, unscrupulous will do well.
the universality of decisions, The relationship between capitalism and
the priority of efficiency and effective- the state should not be an either-or, but rather
ness, a balancing as-well-as. The new balance trans-
cooperation instead of corruption, mits the successful concept of the Social Market
control over and sharing of power in Economy to political theory by freeing thoughts
politics and civil service. from one-sidedness and putting thoughts
The constitutional state, property rights for into a supplementary correlation. After all,
the people and good governance are the most the complementary as-well-as of the Social
important parts of democracy. They are the Market Economy has succeeded in letting the
framework for development. Good Governance class-welfare-polarization of capital and labour
affords political and social reformatory efforts. stand behind the benefit of consensus-oriented
It is a very complex task to develop a nation. social partnerships.
It is not enough to reform the political system The complexities of the modern world
like the Russians did or to only install a market cannot be explained and arranged anymore
economy like the Chinese did. by the one-sidedness of old ideologies. The
Good Governance should combine aspects, putative contrasts should be supplemented in
which in former times were seen as contradic- a tension-rich cooperation. We need the mu-
tions. Like the combination of freedom and mo- tual complementarities of ideas that had been
rality in the constitutional state and solidarity regarded as incommensurable before. We need
and profitability in the social market economy, the complementarities of rights and duties. We
we need a new balance between religion and need the balance between them.
politics, between culture and economy, between Culture and economy should create a great
hardware and software. In the knowledge-based coalition against pre-modern and modern
society it is not of prime importance whether ideologies. The modern national conflicts
land belongs to Germany or Poland as long
as they work together. It is important, however, 1 I taught this idea to Palestinian students, but they did
that the land belongs to an individual person not accept it. In Europe we needed two World Wars to
with rights and duties. Without personal learn the new rules.
8 Heinz Theisen European values and globalization

between Germany, France and Poland nearly central bank, borderless travel, uniform food,
destroyed Europe. The modern ideological con- health regulations and numerous other changes
flicts between democracy and socialism nearly that increased the power of the EU government
destroyed the world. In the new postmodern in Brussels and decreased the power of the na-
world we have to search for new correlations tional members to govern these issues individu-
and complementary ways to balance the poles, ally. On the other hand, the fifteen members
we have to search for a new reciprocity be- opened their arms to their eastern cousins and
tween: thus made their union broader by taking in new
nation and globalization (European member states. Now the EU is a big but not a
Union), global market. With new members like Turkey,
secularism and religion (Enlightened the Balkan states and the Ukraine the European
Religion), Union is in a real danger of overstretching and
efficiency and solidarity (Social Market of just being a branch of the globalized economy
Economy), (Theisen 2006).
individualism and collectivism (Rights Development of the European Union started
and Duties for everyone), with the economy. After endless political quar-
modernization and identity, rels it was the best to change the vision. First, it
technology and ethics, was economy. Afterwards political cooperation
state and market. could happen. The next step now must be to heal
the wounds between the religions. After endless
religious and political wars on the Balkans and
Social Market Economy in the between Israel and the Arabic World, it is still
European Union not just economy that is at stake.
The European Union seems to be a good
Since its birth, in the rubble of World War II the way for the restructuring of technologies,
vision of a united Europe has evolved dramati- national economies, different nations and re-
cally from a coal-and-steel trading arrangement ligions which were divided during centuries.
to a common market to a community to todays Nearly up to the end of the 20th century was
European Union, a new kind of state in which an age of extremes. On the other hand, its bet-
the member nations have handed over much of ter eras were based on negotiation and mixed
their sovereignty to a transcontinental govern- programs, which are public and private affairs
ment in a community that is becoming legally, as well as state and society with interacting with
commercially and culturally borderless. The each other.
EU, with a population of nearly half a billion In the late 20th century Europe was bound
people, and stretching from Ireland to Estonia, together by an extraordinarily dense complex of
has a president, a parliament, a cabinet, a central international institutions: the European Union,
bank, a bill of rights, a unified patent office and NATO, Council of Europe, Organization for
a court system with the power to overrule the Security and Cooperation in Europe and oth-
highest courts of every member nation. It has an ers. East Asia has nothing comparable except
army of 60,000, its own space agency, a bureau- for ASEAN, which does not include any major
cracy of 22.000 and an 80,000-page legal code powers; has generally eschewed security mat-
governing everything from criminal trials and ters, and is only beginning to move towards
corporate taxation to peanut butter labels. the first steps of economic integration. The
In the 1990s the EU grew and its influence APEC incorporating most of the Pacific Rim
went deeper. On the one hand, the member countries is an even weaker discussion club
states agreed to a common currency, a single than ASEAN.
 Santalka. Filosofija, 2009, 17(1): 411 9

The revolutionary progress in communica- paradigm are new communication technologies,

tion technologies helped to tear down the Berlin the structural basis are new political confedera-
Wall and the fences between the nations. Now tions like the European Union and the economic
the nation states of Europe are competing for basis are the interactions of globalization.
know-how, for new technologies, new products The complexities of the modern world
and for the sale of these products. This compe- cannot be explained and arranged anymore by
tition is hard but it is harder to ignore it like the one-sidedness of the old ideologies. The
the socialist countries tried to do. Not being putative contrasts should be supplemented
involved in that competition means standing in a tension-rich cooperation. We need the
apart like the African countries do today. mutual complementarities of ideas that have
The European Union means competition been regarded as incommensurable before.
and cooperation at the same time, it means Education is a precondition, and investments
cooperation of nations and a supranational are the methods. In the long run, education and
state, of state and society, of the social state and cultural social values are more important for
the market economy. In a way this is a renais- development than political structures.
sance of old European dialectic of culture and The Social Market Economy is a good
world, idealism and materialism, religion and example for this. The new balance transmits
enlightenment, solidarity and profitability (Reid the successful concept of the Social Market
2004). We can learn from the European Union Economy to political theory by freeing thoughts
that former enemies can cooperate first in the from one-sidedness and putting thoughts into a
field of economics and afterwards in the field supplementary correlation. After all, the com-
of politics, although there were a lot of borders plementary as-well-as of the Social Market
and even a wall, although they have different economy overrule the class-welfare-polarization
national cultures which were in former times of capital and labour stand behind.
as important as the religious identities of today In the materialistic marxist or neoliberal
and although they struggled for centuries over theory, economy is the basis of culture. But in
the possession of land. the age of knowledge-based economies, it seems
to be the other way around. Culture is more and
more the basis of politics and economy. As we
The European Balance can read in David Landes great book, the cul-
tural preconditions are decisive for the wealth
The modern world with its radical pluralism and poverty of nations (Landes 1998).
leads to confusion of minds. We can interpret To mention only three examples:
the totalitarian answers to that confusion as an You cannot separate technical inventions
attempt to enforce the recombination of sepa- from the liberty of thoughts and science.
rated ways. This way, like fundamentalism, it You cannot separate the declining birth
destroys the complexities and the chances for rate in Europe from our individualistic
complementarities, because it destroys plural- lifestyle.
ism. Software is the most important
The social values of Europe are rooted in precondition for a knowledge-based
the best tradition of our philosophy. The post- economy.
modern way is not separation or reunification Education and Good Governance are the
of the disunited elements, but the coopera- most important preconditions for investments.
tion between them. In modern social science For cooperation between the subsystems of the
this paradigm is called correlation of func- society and between different nations and for
tional systems. The technical basis for the new Good Governance we need to have cultural
10 Heinz Theisen European values and globalization

preconditions like good communication, good the wisdom of an old culture. A total separation
knowledge of each other, trust in each other and of the subsystems leads to the kind of secular-
a new vision of the future. ism which nowadays triggers a moral crisis. If
Two aspects of culture are relevant for the there is no interaction between religion and pol-
economy. One is how outward culture is: To itics, economy and ethics, science and culture,
what degree is it open to foreign influences, best individualism and society, the sustainability of
practices and ideas? How well does it glocal- a culture is in real danger. A lot of people even
ize? The other is how inward a culture is. To in the West believe that this pluralist culture is
what degree is there a sense of national solidar- in moral and cultural decline. At the same time
ity and a focus on development, to what degree especially big parts of the Muslim world are
is there trust within society? Local cooperation in economic decline. If both pre-modern and
in times of globalization is called glocaliza- modern societies are suffering from a feeling of
tion. The more a culture naturally glocalizes decline, they should cooperate to find solutions
the greater the advantage it will have in a flat which will improve their situation.
world. The natural ability to glocalize has been For a new Social Market Economy we need
one of the strengths of Indian culture, American a renaissance of the European dialectic between
culture, Japanese culture and, lately, Chinese culture and society, idealism and materialism,
culture. They haven`t lost their identity by join- religion and enlightenment, solidarity and prof-
ing process of globalization. They try to take the itability. The balancing of those poles is deeply
best and leave the rest (Friedman 2005). rooted in our best traditions. A Social Market
There will be more losers than winners as Economy cannot mean the enlargement of the
long as there are more market victims and mar- German or French social state towards eastern
ket objects than participants. The hopes placed European countries, rather this, there are dif-
by free traders in the comparative advantages ferent sectors of public life following different
of competition are correct for those who are signals and not only one economic signal for all
competitive, but not for the others. The modern of them. The different sectors of our public life
individual increasingly needs to make his living should be in a sustainable balance.
without the help of ethnic groups or pressure
groups. And education is the best shelter against
often corrupt elite. Through market integration Conclusions
the rich lose the shelter, from which they can
exploit the consumers and workers of their We have to search for new compromises beyond
own country. Some of the poor are offered a flexibility and security (Flexicurity), beyond
chance to sell their products on the global mar- competition and cooperation (Coopetition)
ket. China is using this chance in a way which and beyond containment and engagement
passes a real challenge for the competiveness of (Congagement). These new words are symbol-
Europe. We cannot be cheaper than the Chinese izing, that the old either-or between progres-
workers, so we have to be better. sives or conservatives, between liberals and
Education will be the deciding factor. We socialists, between state and market cannot
need education for a knowledge-based econ- explain the complexities of the postmodern
omy, for Good Governance and Social Market world. A new Social Market Economy should
Economy. Are people market objects or market combine aspects, which were seen in modern
participants? Are people political objects or times as contradictions in a complementary
political participants? Education is more than manner.
information. We need knowledge and we need
 Santalka. Filosofija, 2009, 17(1): 411 11

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Friedman, T. L. 2005. The World is Flat. A Brief
History of the Globalized World in the Twentyfirst Theisen, H.; Mustafa, W. (Eds.). 2006. Beyond Fun
Century. New York, London: Penguin Books. damentalism and Nationalism. New Visions for the
Holy Land. Bethlehem: Bethlehem University Press.
Fukuyama, F. 2004. StateBuilding. Governance and
World Order in the Twentyfirst Century. London: Theisen, H. 2006. Die Grenzen Europas. Die Euro
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New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

EUROPIETIKOSIOS VERTYBS IR GLOBALIZACIJA

Heinz Theisen

Straipsnyje grindiama mintis, kad gera vyriausyb, socialin rinkos ekonomika ir edukacija yra lemiami
monijos raidos elementai. Autorius ragina iekoti treiojo kelio tarp kratutini globalins laisvosios rinkos
utopijos ir naujojo nacionalizmo. Tokiu treiuoju keliu laikoma socialin rinkos ekonomika ir europietikas
unijos modelis. Socialin rinkos ekonomika reikalauja, kad atgimt europietika dialektika tarp kultros
ir visuomens, idealizmo ir materializmo, religijos ir vietimo, solidarumo ir pelningumo. i prieybi
balansas ess siaknijs ms geriausioje tradicijoje.
Autorius parodo, kad visuomeniniame gyvenime egzistuoja skirtingi sektoriai, kurie remiasi skirtingais
enklais, todl netikslinga bt visoms sritims taikyti tik ekonominius enklus. Tarp skirting vieojo
gyvenimo sektori privalo bti ilaikyta pusiausvyra, todl mons privalo iekoti kompromis tarp lank
stumo ir saugumo, tarp rungtyniavimo ir kooperacijos.

Reikminiai odiai: globalin laisvoji rinka, socialin rinkos ekonomika, konstitucin valstyb, gera vy-
riausyb, abipusikumas, balansas, edukacija, globalizacija.

teikta 20080407; priimta 20081117