New world disorder

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. . . . The old order is not coming back.”  

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s diagnosis of our current global context has drawn broad agreement across Canada and the world. But does it go far enough? Is his prescription to repair the rupture adequate? Those questions are up for further discussion among Canadians. In my view, Christian voices could make a much-needed contribution.

In the now-famous speech Carney gave at Davos, Switzerland, on January 20, he proposed stronger alliances among middle-power countries to limit the aggression of the world’s most powerful authoritarian rulers. This is a step on the political side of this crisis. However, on the economic side, Carney’s prescription seems to leave much of the current economic system in place, allowing the continued concentration of power in the hands of a few very wealthy corporations, their owners and their political allies.  

Restoring balance 

Will middle powers treat poor countries better? There is little evidence, for example, to suggest that Canadian and European mining companies treat Congolese miners much better than U.S. or Chinese firms. The assumption that expanding trade and deregulating global companies would lead to democracy and wealth for all was wrong from the start. The International Monetary Fund publicly acknowledged that neoliberal economic policies had failed after the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Carney is not the first to name the problem, but now there seems to be more willingness to make substantive changes. 

Unfortunately, the expansion of global trade to satisfy consumer needs and wants has been accompanied by the shrinking of non-market civil society organizations, the power of states and the international human rights system. These were intended to be counterbalancing forces. Restoring balance between these pillars for healthy social development will require more than replacing big powers with middle powers in various coalitions of the willing to address specific global crises.

Deep, moral repair

“From the fracture, we will build something better, stronger, and more just . . . . We will build what we claim to believe in.” This sounds almost biblical. Readers of Carney’s book, Values, which shows his roots in Roman Catholic social teaching, won’t be surprised by these echoes.  

In the Bible, justice comes first; prosperity and peace follow. The order matters. The “old order” puts economic growth first, along with military security, and allocates the leftovers to help the poor and clean up damage to creation. Repairing the rupture between justice and the economic system will require changing how we create wealth and how it is distributed. The economic instructions God gave in the Old Testament and the economic teachings of Jesus all lean into preventing the concentration of power and big gaps in opportunity between the rich and the poor. Deep economic reform in Canada will be a cultural challenge for all workers, consumers, and citizens, and it will require moral courage, as well as economic resilience and political co-operation across our country.