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CHAPTER J

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justice, freedom and solidarity, from the evolution of our aesthetic and morał as well as scientific culture.

As we sald, the economic culture strongly influences our government leadera and oplnion nakers; therefore It strongly Influences most of collectively relevant cholces which are madę In our societies._Qulte_-on_the_ęontrary_x_we_belięve_that

what our soci eties rcos t ly neęd_Ai. In order to sol^ye the Ir

8_-ofwhlchgrowlng__une*£loyment_is__only_____the__most

visible_and__l^mmedjt ate^one- 1 s_a_new_dea l_f or_ _s olj. dar i ty_x_l ed

by a renewed and long-sighted collective intelllgence and culture.

»■' m bbb • IH    «« MB ■ ■■ —

Economics, in this respect, can become - and actually ha6 become - morę dangerous than a lere false descriptlon of the ¹ lawa ¹ which regulate indivlduals' behavlour. If economic systems and thelr laws of motion are not merely contlngent on selfishness and uti 11ty-maxim1zing, any policy which, Instead, is based on these assumptlons will lead to long term failures rather than to the establishment of the 'true' economic (or social and political, for that matter) rationality.

Economic systems have always relied on sonę form of 'solidarity¹ (socio-economic compromises, policy measures aiming to blunt spontaneous contradlctions, etc.). If we destroy those solidarity mechanisms in the narae of a supposed higher form of rationality we may reach a situation in which every one is worse off.

The International arena is the clearest case: growth and development of single countries have always taken place in an essentlally cooperative International environment. Highly ruthless competltiye International' environments have, on the contrary, always led to catastrophes, though in the short period sonę countries may have apparently madę large gains (World War I - peace - World War II).

Thus solidarity is a value judgment but    also    a morę

concrete policy indication. We all should recall Keynes•s attitude towards    the peace-treaty after World War    I (The

ĘconomicConąeguences pf the Peace).

Specifical1y,    in our context, solidarity means    finding

expansive policies which could allow Europę to rise the global level of employment wlthout single countries having to bear an excessive burden.

The above proposition is stated as a condition rather than a    proposal. Our    concrete proposals will be    much    weaker,

although much morę complex, such as to require a real leap in our ruling abilities. In fact the proposals will consist in an articulated set of provlslons and rules aimed at coordinating 1 nternational1y domestic actions to be developed by single EC countries. Coordination is thus treated as the first realistic step to be undertaken to establish a new wave of solidarity, not only within single countries but also among them .