Benedict XVI continues his catechesis on economics and social responsibility, this time in an address yesterday to the Confederation of Italian Cooperatives. Cooperatives, a form of business organization marked by member-ownership, take the form of credit unions, guilds, worker and farming co-ops, ESOP’s, etc. As the name implies, cooperatives are social enterprises based on multi-stakeholder cooperation rather than the kind of zer0-sum competition that characterizes Darwinian capitalism. Cooperatives are at the heart of distributism, the alternative economic system described in and implied by Catholic Social Teaching. Here’s what Benedict had to say:
“The heart of cooperative efforts has always lain in the search for harmony between the individual and community dimensions. This is a concrete expression of the complementarity and subsidiarity which Church social doctrine has always sought to promote between citizens and the State, a balance between safeguarding the rights of the individual and promoting the common good, in order to develop a local economy capable of responding to community needs. Cooperative activities are likewise characterised by their great concern for solidarity, while still respecting the due autonomy of the individual”.