【2010.8.18 ECFR专题文章】A crisis of values?（外一篇）

rhapsody

http://ecfr.eu/content/entry/commentary_a_crisis_of_values/

When is a crisis not a crisis? Perhaps there are so many aspects of our current global situation being described as crises that the word itself has lost much of its sense of emergency. In Europe we’re trying to climb out of a financial crisis that then contributed to an ongoing currency crisis with the knock-on effect of creating multiple crises-of-governance across the continent and a Europe-wide identity crisis. Back in January these questions of identity and purpose became a crisis of ethics and values, at least among two-thirds of respondents to a World Economic Forum survey.

Does the global crisis really run this deep? If so it is a stark message for governments worldwide, as it calls time on an international order based on liberal capitalism. This would be especially serious in Europe, as these apparently crisis-hit values are the underpinning for the EU’s foreign policy. These values, built up over the lifetime of the EU, tacitly assume that modernisation on the basis of a Western model of democracy, respect for fundamental rights, and rule of law, is ultimately the model which ensures a better standard of living for all.

It is hard to escape the fact that although the roots of the meta-crisis are to be found in the financial heart of the Western world, the impact is being felt worldwide among many millions who lie a long way away from the western banking sector. This clearly has negative implications for the soft power of Europe and the US. And yet the Pew Global Attitudes Survey 2010 found that outside these regions, few people do actually believe that Western governments are to blame for the crisis. In most of the countries surveyed in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the majority of respondents who felt their national economy was in bad shape placed the responsibility for this at the door of their national government. This includes 95% in Indonesia, 93% in Kenya and Nigeria, 89% in Pakistan, and 88% in Lebanon. True, survey results only tell you so much, but this doesn’t appear to point towards faith in the Western economic model having been completely undermined.

What then, of rival economic models at this time of crisis? How are systems not based on free markets operating under the rule of law weathering the storm? Among the countries often cited as having been least affected by the financial crisis – leaving aside closed economies such North Korea – are those as diverse as Australia, Brazil, China and Morocco. So while this list does not discredit democracy as a basis for a stable economy, neither does it indicate that the Western model offers better economic protection for its citizens than other models. Arguably, in a time of financial crisis, non-democratic societies can afford to be more nimble. If there is no freedom of expression and association, tough decisions can be taken without the fear of mass protest and electoral defeat that trouble governments in democratic systems.

Questions must also be asked about what it means to steer a country through a financial crisis. It is one thing to pull an economy through a recession; it is a much greater challenge to do so whilst ensuring an adequate standard of living for all citizens. The close relationship between democracy and growth is troubled by the high growth rates experienced in China and other authoritarian countries, including Chad, Burma and Equatorial Guinea. Some commentators argue that the link between respect for international norms such as human rights and rule of law, and economic stability, has been broken. But such a conclusion is premature. China faces many hurdles to sustaining its growth, including an aging population, the need to diversify its economy beyond manufacturing and dependency on carbon-based energy.

When real earnings within some high growth economies are taken into account, the economic success of China and other authoritarian regimes looks much less secure. The benefits of this growth are often far from evenly spread, and a major test over the coming years will be the extent to which many citizens will be willing to endure ongoing relative economic hardship while their neighbours are seen to do so much better. Some argue that this might lead to greater pressure for political reform, and others that economic hardship leads people to place a higher value on non-material goods, which might include reforms such as political transparency and responsiveness.

Since many seem to blame their national governments for the crisis, we may find over the long term that rather than the financial crisis leaving the human rights based value system exposed, it actually instigates a worldwide resurgence of demand for political enfranchisement. People may become more assertive in demanding better from their political masters, emphasising what Angela Merkel termed in her meetings with the Russian government last month the “inseparable link between modernising the economy and making civil society more democratic”.

Few of the seismic shifts that are reverberating around the globe are going to crystalise fully overnight, either in terms of improvements in the economic sphere or in deflating an enduring world order based on international rule of law. The economic crisis has unquestionably driven some self doubt into the liberal international order, but it has not made a case for abandoning the fundamental principles on which the EU’s relationship with the rest of the world is premised. This would be a dangerous time for the EU to abandon an approach that has not been proved wrong, and for which there are no genuine alternatives. That might sound like an underwhelming reason for keeping an approach, but it is a realistic one that also relies upon the confidence of the European nations in the values that they seek to promote. That is how it should be: The economic crisis is already big enough: the EU does not need an existential crisis too.

rhapsody

http://www.weforum.org/en/media/ ... ases/PR_Faithvalues

• Over two-thirds of people believe the current economic crisis is also a crisis of ethics and values
• Report based on opinion poll of over 130,000 respondents from 10 G20 economies on Facebook
• Global religious leaders identify the key values for a more just and sustainable post-crisis economy
• Full report and more at: http://www.weforum.org/faith

Geneva, Switzerland, 18 January 2010 – Over two-thirds of people believe the current economic crisis is also a crisis of ethics and values. But only 50% think universal values exist. These are among the findings of the World Economic Forum’s Faith and the Global Agenda: Values for the Post-Crisis Economy, an annual report on issues related to the role of faith in global affairs.

The report contains a unique new public opinion poll on values conducted through Facebook. The poll reached over 130,000 respondents in France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey and the United States.

The poll results point to a trust deficit regarding values in the business world. Only one-quarter of respondents believe that large, multinational businesses apply a values-driven approach to their sectors, while over 40% believe that small and medium-sized businesses apply such an approach.

Almost two-thirds of respondents believe that people do not apply the same values in their professional lives as they do in their private lives. When asked whether businesses should be primarily responsible to their shareholders, their employees, their clients and customers, or all three equally, almost half of the respondents chose the option of “all three equally”.

When asked to identify the values most important for the global political and economic system, almost 40% chose honesty, integrity and transparency; 24% chose others’ rights, dignity and views; 20% chose the impact of actions on the well-being of others and 17% chose preserving the environment.

Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, said the report underlines the need for a set of values around which our global economic institutions and mechanisms of international cooperation must be built: “Our present system fails to meet its obligations to as many as 3 billion people in the world. Our civic, business and political cultures must be transformed if we are to close this gap. This is why the World Economic Forum is bringing world leaders representing all sectors of society together at the Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters to rethink values underpinning the global system of cooperation.”

The report also compiles editorials on the topic of values for the post-crisis economy from over 15 global religious leaders and faith organizations, including Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, United Kingdom; Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany; Mohammad Khatami, President, Foundation for Dialogue Among Civilizations, and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran (1997-2005); Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Turkey; Ravi Shankar, Founder, Art of Living Foundation, India; David Rosen, Chief Rabbi and Director, American Jewish Committee (AJC), USA; and Yukei Matsunaga, President, Japan Buddhist Federation (JBF), Japan.

“We have to ask what an economy would look like if it were genuinely focused on making and sustaining a home – a social environment that offered security for citizens, including those who could not contribute in obvious ways to productive and profit-making business; an environment in which we felt free to forego the tempting fantasies of unlimited growth in exchange for the knowledge that we could hand on to our children and grandchildren a world: a social and material nexus of relations that would go on nourishing proper three-dimensional human beings – people whose family bonds, imaginative lives and capacity for mutual understanding and sympathy were regarded as every bit as important as their material prosperity,” said Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, United Kingdom. The Archbishop will lead the closing session of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 taking place next week in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.

“The economic and financial crisis is an opportunity to re-articulate the values that should underpin our global institutions going forward,” said John J. DeGioia, President of Georgetown University, USA. “The world's religious communities are critical repositories of those values.” The Report is produced in collaboration with Georgetown University.

Since its inception 40 years ago, the World Economic Forum has integrated the voices of faith leaders into a wide-ranging set of issues and activities. Recognizing their unique and essential role, the Forum has placed a renewed emphasis on engaging the most influential religious leaders from multiple faiths to lead the debate on values.

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