Vocation of Business: Social Justice in the Marketplace » (New Edition)

This is a textbook on the Social Teaching of the Roman Catholic Church for would-be business professionals. Part I does 3 things: provides (1) a history of moral discourse since the Enlightenment, (2) a history of economic thought from Aristotle.

Preface     xi
The Historical Background
Justice and Economics     3
Social Teaching and the Businessperson     3
Why a "Social Teaching"?     5
Justice and Economics     8
The Erotic Economy     10
Business as a School of Virtue     12
The Vocation of Business     14
The Modern Moral Dialogue     15
Is a Moral Dialogue Possible?     15
The Fragmentation of Moral Discourse     17
Recovering the Moral Dialogue     23
Culture, Narrative, and Practice     29
The Culture of the Firm     33
Conclusion     35
Justice in Economic History     37
The Recent History of Economic History     37
The Preacher as Economist     38
The Economist as Preacher     43
The Utilitarians     55
Summary     61
The Disappearance of Justice     63
The Marginalist Revolution     63
The Keynesian Revolution     71
Utility Triumphant     80
The Disappearance of Justice     83
Property, Culture, and Economics     86
Property as the Foundation of Wealth     86
Property and Culture     89
Property and Economics     101
A Question of Values     104
The Social Encyclicals
Rerum Novarum: A Scandalous Encyclical?     109
Reading the Social Encyclicals     109
The Historical Background     110
Reading the Encyclical     112
The Strategy of Rerum Novarum     115
The Scandal of Rerum Novarum     116
Laborem Exercens: Work as the Key to the Social Question     118
The Polish Pope     118
Reading Laborem Exercens     118
A Practical Spirituality of Work     122
Centesimus Annus: The Uncertain Victory     125
The Defeat of Communism     125
Reading Centesimus Annus     126
An Endorsement of Capitalism?     133
The Uncertain Victory     134
Toward an Evolved Capitalism
The Social Teachings and Economics: Ideas in Tension     139
Some "Economic" Principles of Catholic Social Teaching     139
Conflicts with Economic Theory     143
Criteria for an Ethical Economics     148
Toward an Evolved Capitalism     152
Economism     152
Personalism     162
Marginal Productivity and the Just Wage     171
The Capitalist Narrative     171
Marginal Productivity     174
The Critique of Marginal Productivity     177
The Just Wage     185
The Neoconservative Response     194
Responses to Catholic Social Teaching     194
Weber's Question     196
The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism     198
Evaluating Neoconservatism     203
Distributivism     211
The Triumph of Liberalism     211
The Chesterbelloc     212
The Servile State     213
Up from Servility     216
The Economic Theory of Distributism     219
The Ownership Society     222
The Practice of Justice in the Modern Business World
Taiwan and the "Land to the Tiller" Program     227
Land Monopoly and Labor Markets     227
The "Land to the Tiller" Programs     231
Industrial Policy     234
Equality and Development     236
Development and Globalization     238
The Growing Gap     238
The World Bank     239
The Values of Trade     243
Cities and the Wealth of Nations      249
Globalization and "Turbo-Capitalism"     253
Micro-Banking     258
The {dollar}27 Solution     258
The Grameen Bank     260
The Bicycle Bankers     263
The Mondragon Cooperative Corporation     267
Agency and Organization     267
The History of the MCC     271
Organization     275
Workers as Owners     277
The Just Wage and Business     280
The Just Wage and Business     280
Values and Corporate Value     281
Principles of the Just Wage     282
Job Design     284
Organization and Culture     289
Building an Ownership Society     294
Private Property and the Common Good     294
A Short History of Corporations     296
Ownership and Use     302
The Ownership Society     311
Property and Freedom     316
The Vocation of Business     317
The Free Market and Freedom     317
The Vocation of Business     322
Notes     327
Bibliography     349
Index     355