VIA Num. 1 / May'06
Summary
- Editorial: Catalonia and social responsibility
- Why is civil society not good enough?
- Basic concepts for a debate on social responsibility
- Values for a globalised world. Towards a new form of citizenship involving solidarity and responsibility
- The death of morality or the resurrection of values: which system of ethics should we apply nowadays?
- Tony Blair: The beginning, consolidation (and end?) of a leader
- Sweden after the Swedish model. Europe in search of a model of social welfare
- The fraud perpetrated by revisionism
- An alternative to what is politically correct
- Three scenarios for the Mediterranean
- In praise of diversity
- Empire and Freedom
- Planning the hand-over to the next generation
- Struggle, create, and play: Antoni Clavé, a 20th century artist
- And also: books, CEJP's activities and abstracts
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Editorial: Catalonia and social responsibility
Jordi Pujol
VIA, the new magazine published by the Centre d’Estudis Jordi Pujol, has been created to deepen and stimulate debate on questions concerning responsibility, rights and duties, the different sources of social morality, the ethical demands of politics, individual and collective rights, a sense of the common good, ordinary people’s abdication of responsibility to government, and the moral strength of the ideas that are the driving force every country needs. VIA means «route» in Catalan, but is also a combination of the letters IVA, which stand for Ideas, Values, and Attitudes. The magazine aims to include the greatest possible number of rigorously formulated contributions on the questions mentioned above. Although countries cannot progress without good political, economical and technological structures, they also need to have clear ideas, solid values, and positive attitudes. The VIA project is being set up in the belief that it will make a positive contribution to the moral and political development of the Catalan people.
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Why is civil society not good enough?
Amitai Etzioni
This extremely interesting and previously unpublished article by Amitai Etzioni, one of the main representatives of present-day communitarist thought, is based on the presentation he made in the Latin American Development Administration Centre (CLAD) at its 10th Congress on State and Public Administration Reform (Santiago de Chile, 18-21 October 2005). Taking as his starting point a debate that took place at the Institute for American Values, Etzioni tackles the underlying differences between the concepts of 'civil society' and 'good society'. He understands a good society to be one that, as well as encouraging and promoting a high level of consensus through voluntary associative activity and democratic debate, also places great importance on a number of core values, and is based on moral dictates rather than state coercion. Etzioni goes beyond liberal and social-conservative concepts –which are well explained in the article– and makes clear his own commitment to a third option, which he describes as communitarist. Although communitarists are opposed to the regulation of moral behaviour by the state, they argue that society itself should be responsible for promoting moral behaviour.
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Basic concepts for a debate on social responsibility
José Antonio Marina
Is the society we live in responsible or irresponsible? According to the author, we promote a system of «fluid» or transferred responsibility, by demanding responsibility of others while avoiding it ourselves. Although we want our children to be brought up as responsible citizens, we ourselves tend to wash our hands of responsibility, transferring to the State the task of taking on the heavy load. Paradoxically, in a world that has a liberal structure, the Welfare State, while containing many positive and necessary aspects, interprets the concept of freedom badly. The state can therefore become the perfect alibi for individuals who wish to avoid taking on responsibilities by transferring them. According to José Marina we have gone from a system founded on reciprocity to one that is based on demands and complaints. His presentation also contains a detailed analysis of the various concepts of responsibility.
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Values for a globalised world. Towards a new form of citizenship involving solidarity and responsibility
Michel Camdessus
Globalisation involves a large number of risks and opportunities. In this presentation, the author takes as his starting point a widely accepted definition of globalisation and outlines the main points of his proposals for effectively combatting its negative effects. Responsibility, solidarity, and organisations resulting from alliances between all the countries of the world are presented as the only effective way of avoiding confrontation, inequality, and the survival of the Western way of life in general. But, within this global context, what is the specific role of Europe?
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The death of morality or the resurrection of values: which system of ethics should we apply nowadays?
Gilles Lipovetsky
The author describes a comeback of concern about values in politics, the media, and private companies, accompanied by a proliferation of charitable and humanitarian operations. Nonetheless, he affirms that we are now immersed in an individualistic culture that prizes wellbeing, physical pleasure, success, and personal freedom. Therefore, we find ourselves in an unusual situation; although ethical demands are increasing, individuals are no longer required to dedicate themselves to any cause, or to commit themselves, or make sacrifices, or live for other people. Lipovetsky calls this type of society post-moralist (not post-moral), and states that it constitutes a third phase, which follows the theological phase and the phase of secular morality. Post-moralist society contains a paradox: the more people express the desire for personal freedom, the more moral acts of generosity are promoted and stimulated externally.
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Tony Blair: The beginning, consolidation (and end?) of a leader
Montserrat Guibernau
There is no doubt that Tony Blair has become a very charismatic leader since he was elected for the first time in 1997, after the landslide victory of New Labour. Over the last ten years Blair has proved himself to be a leader, who is capable of coming through difficult moments with a vision of the future. However, Blair now faces up to his third –and as he himself has said, last– mandate in difficult circumstances. Firstly, it is clear that the issue of the United Kingdom's role in the war of Iraq has considerably damaged and undermined his credibility. Secondly, there are internal tensions in the heart of the Labour Party caused by the prospect of Blair's succession and the transfer of leadership to Gordon Brown. Finally, Blair's concern with assuring a strong political legacy has led him to draw up a programme for this legislature that radically transforms and redefines the role of the State in the public sector, envisaging a new public service model. He will not find it easy to gain the unconditional support of large factions of his own party for his far-reaching reforms.
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Sweden after the Swedish model. Europe in search of a model of social welfare
Mauricio Rojas
Mauricio Rojas is of Chilean origin and a liberal Member of Parliament in Sweden. In this presentation, he outlines the changes that took place during the 1990s in the Swedish welfare system. For many years Sweden's system was considered by many countries inside and outside Europe to be an outstanding example of the construction of a welfare state. The main body of reforms and transformations implemented in Sweden –especially by social-democratic governments– searched for formulas of cooperation between different public and state organisations aimed at reconciling a powerful welfare model with standards of efficiency and above all with ordinary people's freedom of choice.
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The fraud perpetrated by revisionism
Paul Preston
This year is the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Although both the war and the post-war period still provoke passionate and sometimes bitter arguments, it is now possible to open a serious debate on its consequences. In this context, the prestigious historian from the London School of Economics, Paul Preston, makes a detailed assessment of an emerging «revisionist» current, which follows the line of thought expressed in accounts produced by the victorious Franco regime's propaganda machine after 1939, and alleges that all the different historiographical breakthroughs made under democracy are the result of a sinister conspiracy. The author concludes that the work of the new «revisionists» revives the basic premises of Franco's propaganda.
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An alternative to what is politically correct
Vicenç Villatoro
At present people are faced with conflicting accounts of what is happening and not just different interpretations of the same event. The author affirms that people are caught up in an ideological debate, where the media plays a fundamental role that goes beyond the mere interpretation of facts. Furthermore, each society has its own predominant version of political correctness, which defines what can be said in a natural way, what cannot be said at all, and what can only be said if one apologises first. According to the author, the predominant version in Catalonia is a cocktail made up of the brand of Marxism that was intellectually predominant during the final years of the resistance against Franco, a dash of Social Christianity, and a shot of the cultural nostalgia for May '68 that has been revived by the new antiglobalisation movement.
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Three scenarios for the Mediterranean
Andreu Claret
The deterioration of the political situation in the Mediterranean region over the last few months, clarifies the three scenarios that were already emerging at the Barcelona Summit of November 2005: maintenance of the status quo, which is increasingly inviable; a populist regression in the Arab world, suggested by recent events, which involves risks and tensions that are difficult for the European Union to manage; and the construction of a joint Mediterranean project, based on decisive action to further the process of reform, dialogue and democratisation initiated in Barcelona.
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In praise of diversity
Agustí Colomines
In these times of globalisation and the growth of new technologies, the new challenge is how to preserve cultural diversity. At the moment, six thousand languages are still spoken around the world, but by the end of the 21st century this number may have been halved. The cultural and intangible heritage of humanity runs the risk of suffering the same fate, and an effort must be made to know more about it if it is to be preserved as humanity's common heritage. It is our duty to create a sense of responsibility about the erosion of cultural diversity, in order to guarantee all cultures viable conditions for existence and for transmitting values to future generations.
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Empire and Freedom
Josep M. Colomer
Today's Europe is a democratic «empire», in which power is divided and shared between many levels, none of which has total sovereignty. The blurring of national boundaries, the opportunities created by Europe's public assets and communication networks, and the rediscovery of the democratic advantages of small countries, are some of the factors justifying the diffusion of power and the tendency towards decentralisation. This is the main conclusion of an article in which the author puts forward some of the ideas from his latest book Grans imperis, petites nacions (2006). The article puts into context some of the historical events that are essential to an understanding of the crisis of the nationstate in Europe, paying particular attention to the historical failure of the attempt to build a national and uniform Spanish state of the French or Westphalian type.
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Planning the hand-over to the next generation
Alfons Cornella
It is necessary to plan how to hand over to the next generation at all levels, in order to guarantee the future of Catalonia. The author indicates at least four main areas in which deliberate and swift action of this type is necessary. The world of politics is in need of far-reaching renewal and an audacious hand-over to the next generation. This should be accompanied by the creation of mechanisms for training more competent political professionals, as is already being done in many other countries. Similarly, in the economy and inside companies there is a need for extensive renewal in management, giving greater prominence to young entrepreneurs. More outstanding young people are needed in the media; and in the main social and educational areas there should be a clear option for preparing the hand-over to the next generation by means of various grants and subsidies.
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Struggle, create, and play: Antoni Clavé, a 20th century artist
Àlex Mitrani
Antoni Clavé was born in Barcelona in 1913 and started studying art in 1926. He gradually extended his field of artistic activity until the beginning of the Civil War in 1939, when he was forced to settle permanently in France. This article is a brief biography in memory of one of the most outstanding figures of contemporary art, Antoni Clavé, who died on 1 September 2005 in Saint-Tropez.
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