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John Paul II’s vision of the social economy provides moral guidance to those seeking it. At the same time, it provokes market oriented free enterprise economists by its apparent lack of market understanding. Section one attempts to demonstrate how his vision expressed in Laborem Exercens conflicts with conservative free market economists. Section two deals with the moral logic embedded in conservative economic thought and suggests how John Paul II’s vision outlined in his three encyclicals on the social question enhances this perspective.

Addresses the question: “Are Christian values reflected in contemporary American economic ethics?” Compares the ethics dictated by neoclassical production theory with the Christian production values found in Pope John Paul II′s encyclical, Laborem Exercens . The encyclical rejects the notion that output is the primary goal of production. The implication is that neoclassical production theory is necessary, but not sufficient. Public policy in the United States has long been based on neoclassical production theory. In the last decade, the downsizing and restructuring of production has heightened emphasis on neoclassical production efficiencies. During this period, prevailing economic ethics were largely in conflict with Christian values. The fledgling policy initiatives of the Clinton administration suggest a commitment to reshape policy in ways which more positively incorporate a number of the reforms suggested by Laborem Exercens. If a new economic (production) ethic evolves out of these commitments, the compatibility between economic ethics and Christian values will be greater a decade from now.

Traditionally, one of the most central themes of the social teaching of the Church has been the ethical value of the human person as a creature endowed with an original personality. As a person, man works for a particular purpose, in a pragmatic and rational way, with the ability to decide for himself and to achieve fulfilment. For this reason, work is conceived as an essential element of the person, and needs to be performed in freedom. Our principal source will be the social teaching of John Paul II, and in particular his encyclical Laborem Exercens, since this devotes special attention to the issue of human work. Indeed the focus of this encyclical is human work, that is, the individual who achieves fulfilment in his work. It is man himself who gives his work sense and meaning. By working he fulfils his vocation and his very being. Therefore man’s work is “both a destiny and a calling, but above all, work is for man, not man for work” (Laborem Exercens, No. 6). In other words, man’s duty is to work, not only in order to produce and possess, but to achieve fulfilment.

This paper scrutinizes the relevance of Karol Wojtyla's Laborem Exercens.

In doing so, the endeavor employs participatory method for workers to do the following: identify problems experienced or observed in unionism, determine what/who causes hindrance in achieving the union's aim, describe the future of unionism if the problems are not addressed and draw possible solutions.

Even though the Catholic Church had issued encyclicals that deal with workers' rights and had maintained in its social teachings affirmative arguments for workers, these must be seen yet in the Philippines where unionists are vilified and red-tagged, needing the prophetic role of Church leaders affirming workers' rights. Human work is not only personal but also social, political and economic; it is a collective act.

Though Wojtyla affirmed workers' rights, the workers can hardly feel the presence of the Church. AMA Sugbo – KMU (Alyansa sa mga Mamumuo sa Sugbo – Kilusang Mayo Uno/Workers' Alliance in Cebu – May 1 Movement), a Cebu-based labor group, needs the role of the Church in asserting rights to unionize and launch strikes, but, as Marx maintained, relies on the workers' dedication to arouse, organize and mobilize because many of the workers, as Althusser argued, view social institutions as state apparatuses; hence, there's a need to review the participation of the Church with Wojtyla's Laborem vis-à-vis neoliberal mode of production.

This essay uses three of Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals, Laborem Exercens, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, and Centesimus Annus to articulate principles that may be useful in evaluating public oversight of multinational enterprises (MNE). These encyclicals are challenges to the prevailing socio‐economic order by an institution that cannot be dismissed as “knee‐jerk liberal” carping. On the contrary, the fact that a conservative institution asserts these principles repeatedly and over time may mean that they should be included in our public consideration of the global resonance of MNEs. Insofar as MNE expansion can mean pervasive improvements in the standard of living of the earth’s population, the writings of Pope John Paul II lead to the conclusion that MNE expansion should be encouraged as long as all of the participants, especially the citizens of developing countries, participate in the benefits. MNE expansion and the expected socio‐economic dislocations accompanying the expansion will require institutional arrangements to minimize conflict, promote cooperation, and encourage solidarity. An organization for multinational enterprises (an OMNE) could fill this need by reducing MNEs’ fears about adverse host country policy changes and simultaneously providing assurances that the citizens of the MNE‐host country will share in the rents generated by the MNE’s expansion.

I have chosen as title of my presentation “The European Social Model and the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church”, because, as we all know, the Catholic Church is a very influential force in the new EU Member State Poland. I would like to consider the question whether the European Social Model and the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church are in concordance with each other. The existance of such a concordance cannot be assumed a priori. Most European countries are nowadays pluriform societies, which values can deviate from those of the Catholic Church. We see this clearly on issues like divorce, anticonception, abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality. On such items the divergence between the values of the EU and the Catholic Church are mean while so large, that even one year ago they led the European Parliament to dismiss the nomination of the Italian Buttiglioni for membership of the European Commission.

Beginning with value premises of any kind, clearly one may judge the economic choices of individuals, since they are only part of moral behaviour in general. But my concern here is with the institutions which both shape and are shaped by behaviour, and which are greatly responsible for social good and evil. How successfully may one get from theological values underpinned by religious faith and dogma to valid judgements and recommendations for economic institutions and policy? Further, must they be contingent on the intervention of economic science, introducing specialised information and analysis and such goals as cost and output efficiency? These are the matters I propose to discuss in general terms and illustrate from Laborem Exercens and Ethical Reflections on the Economic Crisis to reach some conclusions.

In 1978, Lewis Hill, in an instructive article in the Review of Social Economy, persuasively demonstrated that “the goals and objectives of social economies are completely compatible with the philosophy and methodology of institutionalism”. Consequently, he concludes, “both schools of economic thought could be strengthened by a synthesis which would merge the goals and objectives of social economics with the pragmatic philosophy and methodology of institutional economics”. Hill arrived at this conclusion by first summarising the goals and objectives of social economics and by distilling the work of Thorstein B. Veblen, John R. Commons, Wesley Clair Mitchell and Clarence E. Ayres, thereby setting forth the philosophy and methodology of institutional economics. Noting that the “four founding fathers of institutionalism constitute an extremely diverse group of scholars”, he observed that “the only feature which ties them together…was their common acceptance of pragmatism as the philosophical basis of their economic thought”. He then identified seven aspects of the effects of pragmatism on the philosophical foundation of institutionalism. He also described five characteristics that set social economists apart.

Pope John Paul II has been a prolific writer on social economic issues. In particular, three encyclicals, Laborem Exercens, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis and Centesimus Annus directly address that topic. While John Paul, as leader of a global church, tends to address these issues from a global perspective, much of what he writes can be applied to the local, urban level of analysis. This essay applies many of John Paul’s premises to the urban poverty problem, including: the preferential option for the poor; the principle of the common use of goods; solidarity; and subsidiarity. It concludes that all of these principles can be used to analyze the problem of urban poverty, especially its spatial elements, and their application suggests a major re‐thinking of the relationship between suburbs and inner cities.

The encyclicals of Popes John Paul II, Pius XI and Leo XIII affirm people’s rights to distributions, and the responsibility of those who are able to care for the poor. These positions trace largely to arguments from Scripture, Aristotle, Aguinas and Locke, and focus on the protection of private property rights and status rights. Although built on authority that is both antiquated and most closely associated with theology and philosophy, the positions, by focusing on rights that are the foundation on which modern economics are organized, are expressed in a way that is consistent with the operation of those economies.