I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
Attributed to Abraham Lincoln[1]
A whole world of new and stronger policies is needed – measures that strengthen our families and our communities, address the breakdown of social connectedness, and favor rootedness over mobility …
James Gustav Speth[2]
Summary
Many Christians accept Capitalism as broadly in line with biblical teaching. Its economic success appears to vindicate attribution of its origins to Christian theology.[3] This confidence in Capitalism as the best available economic system has meant that Christians have failed to recognise that it is one of the main drivers of social and moral breakdown in Western societies.
This paper will highlight five failings in the philosophical foundations and institutions of Corporate Capitalism, pointing to their devastating impact on families and communities, and how they bring about the growth of giant corporations and centralised state power. Christians need to search urgently for a new economic order based on biblical revelation.
Does Capitalism have a case to answer?
The economic benefits of Corporate Capitalism are obvious to all of us. Paul Collier suggests that a billion people have been lifted out of poverty in the last 30 years by the incorporation of their economies into the Capitalist-inspired global trading system.[4] Many of us in Britain enjoy the experiences offered by air travel, computers, iPods and mobile phones, all made possible by the efficiency of Capitalist corporations. When someone close to us contracts a serious illness or has an accident, which of us is not grateful for modern drugs and technology, again the products of mega-corporations?
In terms of political benefits, Capitalism has led in many countries to the replacement of feudal aristocracies with meritocracies, and arguably there is a close link between Capitalism and democracy. As Novak suggests, ‘political democracy is compatible in practice only with a market economy’.[5] Of course, Capitalism is not the only form of market economy imaginable, but it is the only one with which most people are familiar. For many, daily life in a Capitalist society appears highly desirable, and millions from former Communist countries aspire to achieve it.
While there is much concern about the activities of the modern corporation, especially in terms of exploitation of the workforce and impact on the environment, its critics can exaggerate. Some large companies take good care of their staff, providing training and career progression without regard to gender, class or race. They encourage good citizenship, give generously to charities and increasingly are adopting measures to protect the environment, all in the name of corporate social responsibility.
Moreover Capitalism, it is argued, rests largely on Christian values. According to its early proponents like Adam Smith, it takes account of the sinfulness of the human heart. So rather than rely on the State to allocate resources and fix prices where human greed can too easily play a part, impersonal markets determine these outcomes, with each player in the market pursuing their own self-interest. The greed of any individual is constrained, in effect, by the enterprise of others through the mechanism of the market. In the words of a leading left-wing thinker, ‘The free market remains, all in all, a factor promoting socialisation, a means of connecting human beings, even of creating fraternity or, in any case, mutual recognition. Hence, it is the opposite of corruption.’[6] Indeed, biblical teaching assumes free markets for exchange of goods and services, providing only that the conduct of markets is just and fair[7] and that traders do not hoard food in periods of shortage.[8]
In addition, for human beings to reflect fully the image of their Maker, they must have the opportunity to exercise responsibility, to make choices, to experience ‘liberty’. This liberty only flourishes where economic decisions and exchange are not constrained by powerful political or social interests. Hence, biblical teaching warns against excessive state power in both Old and New Testaments.[9] Traditionally, it has been those in favour of Capitalism who have argued most vigorously for limits on the power of central government.
With clear evidence of the economic benefits of Capitalism, and of its roots in a Christian understanding of the world, why should any Christian question its legitimacy? As shown below, the failings of Capitalism arise substantially from corporations which developed as its primary engine. So it is important to separate out the moral failings which are intrinsic to Capitalism itself, and those attributable to Corporate Capitalism, i.e. to the legal form of its institutions.
The theological framework
Rather than a general appeal to conscience, the Cambridge Papers approach is to explore issues from within the framework of biblical revelation. This allows not only a critique of principles or values, but also provides a plumb line for evaluation of ‘institutions’, which Douglass North has defined as ‘the rules, formal and informal, which govern the behaviour of organisations and individuals’.[10]
The starting point for evaluation of economic and social institutions is the fact that God is a relational being, and that his priority is not economic growth, but right relationships both between humanity and himself, and between human beings.[11] This relational focus is the theme of both Old and New Testaments. When Jesus lays down the overarching moral principles of ‘love God and love your neighbour’,[12] he is pointing to the priority of relational over financial wealth, for love is a quality of relationships.
