Following the gathering of government, business and civil society leaders at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, the observation has spread that we live in an era of ‘polycrisis’. The simultaneous appearance of several catastrophic events defines the perception of the current socioeconomic and geopolitical climate.
In the face of such immense challenges as global warming, the health care crisis, a growing digital divide, and financialized business models that increase income and wealth inequality, it is not surprising that disillusionment with politics is growing, thus creating ideal conditions. for populists who promise easy remedies.
But the real solutions are complex and will require investment, regulation, and social, organizational, and technological innovations; and not only from governments and companies, but also from individuals and organizations from across the spectrum of civil society.
Governments, convinced that policies can only aspire to correct market failures, often give insufficient and late responses. Even public goods such as funding research and development activities at the grassroots level are seen as ways to correct a problem of positive externalities, just as carbon taxes correct a problem of negative externalities.
But achieving transformative change that produces inclusive and sustainable growth depends less on correcting markets than on shaping and creating them. This demands complementing the idea of public goods with that of the ‘common good’, which is not only a question of what, but also how.
The route
The common good is a goal to be achieved jointly through collective intelligence and benefit sharing. It transcends the idea (on which it is based) of communally owned resources by emphasizing how to design investment, innovation, and collaborative mechanisms toward a shared goal.
Common goods are the product of collective interactions and investments that demand shared models of ownership and governance.
Common goods are the product of collective interactions and investments that demand shared models of ownership and governance. That is why the benefits arising from these activities must be shared collectively. The idea of the common good also addresses the need for effective international governance, highlighted in the notion of global public goods, well elaborated by my brilliant colleague, the late Inge Kaul, who helped inspire the work of the World Commission on the Economy. of the water.
papal guide
In his encyclical of May 2015 Laudato si’: on caring for our common home, Pope Francis eloquently defends a way of thinking based on the common good for a world of constant change. It is not abstract idealism. The idea of the common good offers a useful framework for setting shared goals and determining how to achieve them. Francis speaks of the need for subsidiarity (the principle of resolving particular issues at the most local level possible) and of seeing the world through the eyes of the most vulnerable people.
According to Francis, the priority in all social, economic and political change must be to protect the essential conditions on which human life depends. Decision-making for the common good implies defending the dignity of those who are marginalized in social, political and economic terms, not only with words but with policies and new forms of collaboration. It involves creating a network of solidarity through which unheard voices can participate in crucial decision processes.
To achieve these objectives, a new growth model is needed in whose search those who are excluded today must participate; not a model that is simply implemented on their behalf. Examples are cooperative organizations, which have proven effective in bringing together people with limited means and giving them opportunities for autonomous action that they would not otherwise have had.
An obligation of the State
Francisco also understands that in times when some economic sectors have more power than governments in certain areas, it is the obligation of the State to defend the common good on behalf of all. To buck the trend and meet the great challenges that lie ahead requires a fundamental change in economic policy. Today, the principle of the common good is seen as a corrective to the excesses of the current system; but instead, it should be the central objective of the system.
Money is not everything: it is also important to encourage certain forms of collaboration. In the case of covid-19, the world made a very successful collective investment in vaccine research. But he omitted to guarantee that the final result would be transferred to a common good: specifically, getting the entire world population to be immunized.
The mere association between the parties does not mean that they are collaborating correctly for the common good.
We often have a lazy idea of ’alliances’ between various parties. The mere association between the parties does not mean that they are collaborating correctly for the common good; For this, it is also necessary that they jointly set the objectives and that they harmonize risks and benefits. All participants must agree on the what as well as the how. For example, it is not only about developing vaccines, but also about making them available to everyone.
an eloquent example
With a common good approach, each step of the process is almost as important as the end result. In the United States, the government funnels billions of dollars of public investment into health research and development every year ($45 billion for the National Institutes of Health in 2022 alone), but then allows all the profits to stay in the hands of private.
When the “rewards” of a collective effort do materialize, often as business gains or valuable knowledge, they must be shared to the same extent that the risk was shared.
As I show in my book economy mission, there are many ways to do it. One is to condition public support on certain intellectual property or price requirements, or to require profit-sharing, for example, through a shareholding model.
Another way to promote a more equitable distribution of value among all members of society is through collective ownership structures.
All these mechanisms make it possible to limit the undue concentration of power in the hands of a few privileged people and/or companies.
And these problems are not exclusive to the field of health. The digital economy has been growing for years on the basis of large-scale public investment. With a few powerful companies controlling most of the data, key technologies like artificial intelligence today reproduce pre-existing biases and injustices. To counter this, we have to design a more inclusive and transparent framework that, for example, imposes certain ethical criteria on the terms and conditions of digital services.
And these problems are not exclusive to the field of health. The digital economy has been growing for years on the basis of large-scale public investment.
Finally, we must encourage a greater appreciation of the power of collective intelligence. Just as environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG/ESG) indicators help companies to provide information on their behavior and organizational culture, a common good approach requires better provision of information on inter-organizational and public-private dynamics, that expresses the entire ecosystem of collaboration (or parasitism, as can also happen).
The idea of the common good is an idea of intense collaboration, of collective intelligence, of joint creation of ends and means, and of a correct distribution of risks and benefits. Mission-oriented innovation and industrial policies show how these principles can be put into practice. Governments or international organizations can set a clear goal (often through a consultative process with other stakeholders) and then create conditions for intense public-private collaboration to achieve that goal.
And in this process, trial and error is a crucial element. The direction must be clear, but there must also be ample scope for decentralized experimentation. The common good is a shared goal. Putting the accent on the how as well as the what makes it possible to promote human solidarity, the shared use of knowledge and the collective distribution of benefits. It is the best (and indeed the only) way to ensure a decent quality of life for all people on an interconnected planet.
AUTHOR: MARIANA MAZZUCATO
© PROJECT SYNDICATE – LONDON
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