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Programme VI
PLENARY SESSION Democracy
– Reality and Responsibility (23-26
February 2000) Tuesday 22 February 5.00 to 7.00 pm
Meeting of the Council Wednesday 23 February 10.00 to 11.30 am
Papal Audience
Part I
The General Framework
Chairperson: Professor A.F. Utz 12.00 to 1.30 pm
Professor Hans F. Zacher
(Pontifical
Academician - München) “The State of the Academy’s Deliberations on Democracy"
Professor
Partha Dasgupta
(Pontifical
Academician - Great Britain)
“Democracy in a Global World“ 1.30 to 3.00
pm
Lunch and coffee break
Part
II Democracy: Strategies for
Values - How to Advocate, Foster and Defend Values in a Pluralistic Society by
Democratic Means (two speakers)
Chairperson: Professor B.
Betancur 3.00 to 5.00 pm
Professor
Michel Schooyans
(Pontifical Academician -
Louvain-la-Neuve) Professor Paul Kirchhof (Heidelberg) 5.00
to 5.30 pm
Break 5.30 to 7.00
pm
Closed session for Academicians 7.30 pm
Dinner and coffee break Thursday 24 February Part III The Ideal of Democracy and
Democratic
Changing Interplay
Democratic Structures and Civil
Society (two
speakers)
Chairperson: Professor M.M.
Ramirez 9.00 to 11.00 am
Professor
Mary Ann Glendon
(Pontifical Academician - Massachusetts)
Professor Göran Therborn (Uppsala) 11.00 to 11.30 am
Break Part IV Democracy and Individual Fields of Encounter between the State
and Society
Chairperson: Professor J.G.
Zubrzycki 11.30 to 1.30 pm
Professor Paulus Mzomuhle Zulu
(Pontifical Academician -
Durban)
“Education - Education as a Precondition for Democracy - Education as a Means to
Implement Democracy“
Professor Janusz Ziolkowski
(Pontifical Academician - Poznan)
“Democracy, Public Opinion and the Media“ 1.30 to 3.00 pm
Lunch and coffee break 3.00 to 3.30 pm
Photograph 3.30 to 5.30 pm
Professor
Hans Tietmeyer
(Pontifical Academician - Frankfurt am
Main)
“Democracy and the Economy“
Professor Colin Crouch (EUI - Firenze)
“Democracy and Labour“ 5.30 to 6.00 pm
Break 6.00 to 7.30 pm
Closed session 7.30 pm
Dinner and coffee break Friday 25 February
Continuation Part IV
Chairperson:
Professor J. Bony 9.00 to 11.00 am
Professor
Manfred G. Schmidt (Bremen)
“The Democratic Welfare
State“
Professor
Herbert Schambeck
(Pontifical Academician - Linz)
“Ethnic Structures and
National Democracy“ 11.00 to 11.30 am
Break 11.30 to 1.30 pm
Professor
Pierpaolo Donati (Pontifical Academician - University of
Bologna)
“Religion and
Religious Communities“ (first speaker) Professor Habib Malik (Beirut) “Religion and Religious Communities” (second
speaker) 1.30 to 3.00 pm
Lunch and coffee break 3.00 to 6.00 pm Meeting of the committee in charge of preparing
the Jubilee edition Meeting on the Social Dimensions of
Globalization 7.30 pm
Dinner at the Casina Pio IV Saturday 26 February
Part V
Closing discussion
Chairperson:
Professor N.J. McNally 9.00 to 10.30 am
Professor Roland Minnerath
(Pontifical Academician -
Strasbourg) “Democratic Development and the Social Teaching of the Church - Focuses of
Responsibility“ 10.30 to 11.00 am
Break 11.00 to 1.30 pm
General discussion 1.30 to 3.00 pm
Lunch and coffee break 3.00 to 5.00 pm
Meeting of the Council 7.30 pm
Dinner and coffee break
____________ . ____________ To the Participants in the Sixth Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences 1.
I am pleased to greet you on the occasion of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Pontifical
Academy of Social Sciences. I thank your President, Professor Edmond
Malinvaud, and all of you, the Academy members, for your dedication and
commitment to the work which you undertake for the good of the Church and of
the human family. As you are well
aware, the Church's social doctrine is meant to be a vehicle through which the
Gospel of Jesus Christ is brought to bear on the different cultural, economic
and political situations facing modem men and women. It is in this precise
context that the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences makes a most important
contribution: as experts in the various social disciplines and as followers of
the Lord Jesus you enter into that dialogue between Christian faith and
scientific methodology which seeks true and effective responses to the
problems and difficulties which beset the human family. As my predecessor Pope
Paul VI said, "all social action involves a doctrine" (Populorum
Progressio, 39), and the Academy helps to ensure that social doctrines do
not ignore the spiritual nature of human beings, their deep longing for
happiness and their supernatural destiny which transcends the merely
biological and material aspects of life. The Church's task - her right and her
duty - is to enunciate the basic ethical principles governing the foundation
and proper functioning of society, within which men and women make their
pilgrim way to their transcendent destiny. 2.
The theme chosen for the Academy's Sixth Plenary Session, "Democracy -
Reality and Responsibility", represents a most important topic for
the new millennium. While it is true that the Church offers no concrete model
of government or economic system (cf. Centesimus
Annus, 43),
she "values the democratic system inasmuch as it ensures the
participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the
governed the possibility both of electing and holding accountable those who
govern them, and of replacing them through peaceful means when
appropriate" (ibid., 46). At the dawning
of the Third Millennium, a serious question confronts democracy. There is a
tendency to see intellectual relativism as the necessary corollary of
democratic forms of political life. In such a view, truth is determined by the
majority and varies in accordance with passing cultural and political trends.
From this point of view, those who are convinced that certain truths are
absolute and immutable are considered unreasonable and unreliable. On the
other hand, as Christians we firmly believe that "if there is no ultimate
truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and convictions can
easily be manipulated for reasons of power. As history demonstrates. a
democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised
totalitarianism" (Centesimus Annus, 46). Thus, it is
important that Christians be helped to show that the defence of universal and
unchanging moral norms is a service rendered not only to individuals but also
to society as a whole: such norms
"represent the unshakable foundation
and solid guarantee of a just and peaceful human coexistence, and hence of genuine
democracy" (Veritatis
Splendor, 96). In fact, democracy itself is a means and not an end, and "the
value of a democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and
promotes" (Evangelium Vitae,
70). These values cannot be based on changeable opinion but only on the
acknowledgment of an objective moral law, which ever remains the necessary
point of reference. 3.
At the same time the Church refuses to espouse that extremism or
fundamentalism which, in the name of an ideology purporting to be scientific
or religious, claims the right to impose on others its own concept of what is
right and good. Christian truth is not an ideology. Rather it
recognizes that changing social and political realities cannot be confined
within rigid structures. What the Church does is constantly to reaffirm the
transcendent dignity of the human person, and constantly to defend human
rights and freedom. The freedom which the Church promotes attains its
fullest development and expression only in openness to and acceptance of the
truth. "In a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation and
man is exposed to the violence of passion and to manipulation, both open and
hidden" (Centesimus
Annus, 46). 4. There
is no doubt that the new millennium will see the continuation of the
phenomenon of globalization, that process by which the world moves ever closer
to becoming a homogeneous whole. In this context it is important to remember
that the "health" of a political community can be gauged in no small
way by the free and responsible participation of all citizens in public
affairs. In fact, such participation is a "necessary condition and
sure guarantee of the development of the whole individual and of all people"
(Sollicitudo
Rei Socialis, 44).
In other words, smaller social units - whether nations themselves,
communities, ethnic or religious groups, families or individuals - must not be
namelessly absorbed into a greater conglomeration, thus losing their identity
and having their prerogatives usurped. Rather, the proper autonomy of each
social class and organization, each in its own sphere, must be defended and
upheld. This is nothing other than the principle of subsidiarity, which
requires that a community of a higher order should not interfere in the
internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its
rightful functions; instead the higher order should support the lower order
and help it to coordinate its activity with that of the rest of society,
always with a view to serving the common good (cf. Centesimus
Annus, 48). Public opinion
needs to be educated in the importance of the principle of subsidiarity for
the survival of a truly democratic society. The global
challenges that the human family faces in the new millennium also serve to
highlight another dimension of the Church's social doctrine: its place in ecumenical
and interreligious cooperation. The century just past has seen enormous
progress in multilateral initiatives to defend human dignity and promote peace.
The era upon which we are now embarking must see a continuation of such
efforts: without the concerted and united action of all believers - indeed of
all men and women of good will - little can be accomplished to make genuine
democracy, value-based democracy, a reality for the men and women of the
twenty-first century. 5.
Distinguished and dear academicians, I express once more my appreciation of
the valuable service which you render in bringing Christian enlightenment to
those areas of modem social life where confusion about essentials often
obscures and suffocates the lofty ideals planted in the human heart. With
prayers for the success of your meeting 1 cordially impart to you my Apostolic
Blessing, which I willingly extend to your families and your loved ones. From
the Vatican, 23 February 2000. Joannes Paulus II
____________ . ____________ Press
Release Sixth Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences of
23-26 February 2000
In
the last week of February the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences is to hold
its sixth plenary session. At this meeting it is proposed to bring its
work on “Democracy” to a provisional conclusion. The mission of the
Academy, which was established in 1994, is according to its statutes that
“of promoting the study and progress of the social sciences, primarily
economics, sociology, law and political science. The Academy, through an
appropriate dialogue, thus offers the Church the elements which she can use in
the development of her social doctrine, and reflects on the application of
that doctrine in contemporary society.” Having at its first plenary session
(1994) discussed the basis of all social teaching and “the tension between
human equality and social inequality”, it then turned its attention (1996,
1997 and 1999) to the question of work and its consequences. At the same
time it addressed, in 1996, the subject of “Democracy”. This subject
poses for Catholic social teaching and thus for the Academy itself a special
challenge: on the one hand because the social teaching of the Church has
from the middle of the twentieth century laid great stress upon the value both
of democracy itself and the responsibility arising from democracy; and
on the other hand because democracy, in the wake of the decolonization of the
world and the collapse of alternative structures (authoritarian, fascist and
communist), has spread throughout the world. Now, at the turn of the
century, democracy and the people who live under it are confronted by a
variety of problems both old and new. The
work of the Academy commenced in 1996 with a workshop which served above all
to bring the Academy up to date on the pronouncements of the Popes on
democracy and to investigate the different situations of democracy in
different regions of the world. The next stage of the work took place in
the fourth meeting of the Academy in 1998. From the vast number of
aspects dwelt upon by the workshop three areas were selected: (1) the value of
democracy and the relation of democracy to values; (2) “civil
society” as a precondition of democracy; and (3) the relationship between
national democracy and the supranational forces and institutions operating in
a world undergoing the process of globalization. At
its sixth plenary meeting, the Academy will study democracy under roughly the
same three main headings. Firstly, it will again consider democracy in a
“globalising” world: the interaction taking place between democratic
countries in terms of global communication; the relationship between
national democracy and transnational, international or supranational
powers and institutions; and the relationship between democratic and
undemocratic elements in transnational, international and supranational
structures. Secondly, the Academy will once again address the question of the
relationship of democracy to values: in 1998 the treatment of this subject was
analytical but the Academy will now discuss the possible strategies for the
realization of values under the
rule of democracy. Thirdly, the relationship between the institutions or rules
of democracy and “civil
society” also needs to be investigated in greater depth. On the one hand,
the Academy wants to enquire into
the multifarious and ever-changing reality of this relationship; on the other,
it will discuss important complex fields on which the democratic state and
civil society meet each other: education, public opinion and media, labour and
its organization, the welfare state, religion and religions communities.
____________. ____________
Summary
of VIth Plenary Session (28
February 2000) During its sixth plenary session the
Academy continued its study of the subject of democracy which it began in
1996. On the bases of formal analyses drawn from current democratic models the
Academy studied in particular the connection between democracy and values. The
changes in paradigms were brought to attention. Democracy is not a static
value. It redefines problems to the extent that it pervades all areas of
social life. Democracy has become a value in itself which coexists awkwardly
with the idea of ethical truth. And yet models exist or have existed in which
a fertile interaction has been engendered between the social market economy,
democracy, and religion as a source of meaning and indisputable values. The subject of civil society has received
particular attention, as much at the level of principles as that of empirical
analysis. This has led us to refer to democracies in the plural as concrete
systems and to note that the conditions which have sustained the democratic
project since the end of the eighteenth century in many cases no longer apply.
The challenges which have to be addressed today concern the subjects of
globalisation, education, the rights of minorities, the extension or
limitation of the welfare state, and the role of religions in democratic life.
In many respects the cards have been reshuffled. As de Tocqueville foresaw, democracy has
become an irresistible force capable of gaining the adherence of the different
peoples of the world. It is not, however, a unified reality. There is no
reason to idealise it. Athenian democracy in the century of Pericles was
exercised by a tiny minority of free men, to the exclusion of women,
foreigners and slaves. It defended strictly local interests. In the nineteenth
century the first democratic experiences were limited by a narrow suffrage. In
our century the liberal and collectivist models have both been claimed by
democracy. In practice, the whole democratic system is conditional and limited.
Despite this fact, democracy today represents the area in which the aspiration
for social justice and human rights is expressed. One of the most important results of the
analyses in question is that democracy does not generate the values on which
it is based, that it demands a
preparation of the citizen for the system. It requires a powerful civil
society which regulates itself according to principles which, more often than
not, are not democratic in essence (school, the army, business, churches) but
which are subject to the pressure of the democratic model. The democracies
have not always guaranteed the values which they proclaim - justice, equality,
peace. Democracies have transformed into totalitarian systems by manipulating
democratic institutions. They can also be tempted to control information and
to demonise opponents. Political democracy needs citizens who are formed by
values which permit democracy to perfect itself. The link between political democracy and
the liberal market economy has strengthened. The democratic state needs market
structures. It cannot accommodate itself to a planned economy. The inverse is
not exact, as is demonstrated by the numerous examples of countries which have
experienced economic renewal through the free market under authoritarian
regimes. Hence the importance which should be placed
on the theme of education. This can be an instrument for perpetuating
inequality or for forming critical minds capable of thinking in an autonomous
manner. It should explain the educational mechanisms of ideologies and of the
appropriation of power. Communication is at the heart of democratic life.
Public opinion expresses the choices of the community, but it can also be
subject to possible manipulation by interest groups and power. These can fuel
prejudices which are fatal for democracy. Democracy does not follow the same pace of
development of communications and markets. Powerful interest groups are being
formed which evade all democratic control. The question which arises is to
know in which areas of choice defining the future a form of regulation is
practised which is democratic in character. A test for democracy is the manner in which
it treats its minorities. Can several peoples exist in a democracy? The
problem becomes more complicated when these minorities are religious groups
discriminated against both as citizens and believers. The problem of democracy and religions
remains unsolved. Prejudices and mutual fears remain very much alive. It is
necessary to stand by the achievements of human rights in this field, where
religious organisations have an internal autonomy in virtue of the inalienable
space of freedom which belongs to men in their religious approach. The Academy has addressed itself to these
analyses with the principles of the social doctrine of the Church. It has
noted the main areas of confrontation between the approach of modernity, which
sees in the free will of individuals the source of every norm, and Catholic
thought, which affirms that the norm is inscribed
in the nature of beings who cannot use it in an arbitrary manner.
Democracy as an exercise of power in society conforms most closely to the
dignity of the person, on condition that the person is protected against
manipulation and that action taken is not against but in conformity with the
demands of human nature. Democracy is not an end in itself. The goal of
society is to ensure the conditions for the development of people and families,
while guaranteeing that justice and solidarity prevail. Democracy is often
invoked as a value in itself in order to eliminate as illegitimate all
reference to a horizon of ethical norms which eludes the democratic process. There is
no alternative between democracy and other forms of government. The problem rests in the relation between democracy and the
values upon which it is founded. These refer to a concept of man and society
the roots of which are religious as much as they are rational. It is from this
reserve of values that democracy should draw while it is threatened by being
corrupted by ideology or the apologia of moral relativism. |
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