Abstract
In his May 2015 encyclical on ecology Pope Francis appealed for a new dialogue with all people about how we are shaping the future of our planet. The encyclical constitutes a vigorous attack on the ethics, politics and economics of “neoliberal” capitalism. This chapter argues that, implicit in the encyclical’s critique are proposals for “democratic capitalism” to replace the neo-liberal version. Democratic capitalism is about three dynamic systems converging as one: a democratic polity, a capitalist economic system based on markets and incentives and a moral-cultural system which is pluralistic and, in the largest sense, liberal. It matches most of Pope Francis’s ethics and his vision of the common good for humanity. According to Pope Francis the common good includes social peace, distributive justice, the eradication of poverty, access to steady employment and, above all, stewardship of the earth’s environment.
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Venton, P. (2017). Pope Francis’s Ethics for Democratic Capitalism and the Common Good. In: Westra, L., Gray, J., Gottwald, FT. (eds) The Role of Integrity in the Governance of the Commons. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54392-5_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54392-5_17
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