Marvin Brown responds to a previous article on “civil society”:

“Finding the right terms and relations is not easy here. Perhaps the first choice is how to think about it all. I have tried to think contextually, which means to look at how some things are embedded in others. Property ownership, for example, is only possible because of governments that protect property rights. This means that membership precedes ownership, except in situations where might makes right.

So I think about the civic as the context for the commercial. This civic foundation, of course, has been dominated by the commercial, for the most part, and yet, I think the civic does refer to the basis for market activity, but is not itself subject to market exchanges. This civic is also the foundation of political institutions and practices. My point is that the commercial belongs to or is embedded in the civic, which is now implicitly true but mostly ignored, and needs to be made explicit and recognized as the basis for global citizens working toward democratic practices in all governing institutions.

These governing organizations and institutions, both commercial and political, should be seen today as belonging to various “systems of provision” that provide us with what we have reason to value. These systems of provision are also finally guided by civic norms, such as reciprocity and moral equality. They can be directed by the three strategies of persuasion, incentives, and regulation (from K Boulding’s triad of integration, exchange, and threat). Now these three strategies may lead us to think of three different types of organizations, but I think they are present in all organizations, There are differences here. Political institutions have laws and the capacity to enforce laws, which give them the power to regulate commercial institutions if they have the will to do so.

Finally, in the work of “civilizing the economy,” we need to see the economy as a social system. Society, as the location of all the structures of advantage and disadvantage, also needs be to civilized. Now we may point to some institutions, such as religions, that have been involved in such activities for a long time. Whether they actually promote a civic society or not depends on their adherence to civic norms, especially moral equality.

I think the commons differs from the civic in the sense that the civic emerges from dealing (trading) with strangers. It is what makes us global citizens: members of the city. It is as citizens that we need to protect and to decide how to use what the commons provides us.”

2.

“The private, for of all, refers to our duty to respect the autonomy of each individual. Article 12 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights reads in part: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation.” In the Anglo-American tradition, this notion of privacy is sometimes connected with ownership of one’s self (John Locke), but it is more accurate to connect it with human dignity and moral equality.

So what is the meaning of “private property” today? If we look at where we live, for example, we can see the dwelling as a home, a house, and a piece of real estate (property). Privacy belongs to the home, and is not dependent on ownership. The house belongs to both an urban and a natural environment, and needs to fit in with these environments. As real estate, it is a piece of property, and it could be “owned” by the state, a cooperative, or individuals. Let me say that we own our house. I think family ownership is fine as part of a plan to manage a housing system of provision, but that may change as we direct this system toward justice and sustainability. In any case, we can say that the home is the location of privacy, the house must fit urban and environmental standards, and the “property” should be managed for this and future generations.

So what about a “private sector”? If the commercial belongs to and is dependent on the civic, and if commercial organizations (businesses) belong to systems of provision (such as the food or housing system), then what are we to make of the “private sector”? I am not sure.

I think a civic economy can embrace different kinds of ownership, including cooperatives, families, and investor owned businesses (public corporations). Ownership does have its privileges, but also its civic and legal obligations. As we know,ownership requires a legal title, so owners have duties to communities. Still, they also have some autonomy to “run their businesses” as they see fit. In this sense, owner autonomy should be protected, which requires enforced property rights. Still, these property rights must be correctly seen as grounded in civic norms and political decisions.
In Indo-European languages, we think in triads. It is the character and limits of our linguistic structure. There may be other languages that are better at sorting out our life together, but we work with what we have. Plato’s triad was rulers, warriors, and workers: a top-down view. We are trying to craft a bottom-up view, beginning with the common, moving to the civic, and then allowing the civic to serve as the context for the commercial and the political. “