The term “Civil Economy” refers primarily to a cultural perspective for interpreting the economy as a whole, underlying an economic theory of the market founded on the principles of reciprocity and fraternity, offered as an alternative to the capitalist model.

Civil Economy is nonetheless a market economy, and as such it rests on the following principles:

• The concept of division of labor, meaning the specialization of tasks, which results in the creation of endogenous exchanges (as distinct from “exogenous” ones, arising from the existence of a surplus) that, in turn, increase the productivity of the system in which they take place.

• The concept of development, which, on one hand, presupposes—drawing on a Judeo-Christian cultural matrix—the existence of intergenerational solidarity, that is, concern on the part of the present generation for future ones, while, on the other hand, it is also linked to the concept of accumulation.

• The concept of freedom of enterprise, according to which those possessing entrepreneurial qualities must be left free to start a business. Entrepreneurial qualities are understood to include: risk propensity (that is, the impossibility of guaranteeing the outcomes of entrepreneurial activity), innovativeness or creativity (that is, the ability to incrementally add knowledge to a product or production process), and the ars combinatoria (the entrepreneur, knowing the characteristics of those participating in the business activity, organizes them in order to achieve the best possible outcome).

• The purpose, meaning the type of product (good or service) to be obtained.

It is precisely this last principle that distinguishes Civil Economy from the capitalist market economy: while the latter has adopted, as the very aim of its action, the attainment of the so-called total good, Civil Economy instead pursues what is known as the common good.

– www.edc-online.org
– www.centrochiaralubich.org
– www.focolare.org