For the United States government to require that everyone carry health care insurance is not socialism, but neither is it libertarianism. What about seeing it as a third form of government that we can call: “civicism.” Civicism believes that all citizens have certain obligations to each other based on such civic norms as solidarity, moral equality, and reciprocity.
In my business ethics classes, I ask students to take on the role of a citizen when we consider the ethics of business in society. What does that mean, especially in a classroom filled with students from perhaps ten to twelve different countries? What would it look like for a student from China or from Indonesia to take on the role of citizen in an ethics class in the United States?
I begin the exploration of this question by sharing the original meaning of citizen. A citizen is a “member of a city.” Citizenship, in other words, provides us a consciousness of membership. Today, of course, we would extend membership beyond any particular city to the global community. I think of global citizenship, for of all, as an awareness of belonging to this generation. In our global, pluralistic world, to see oneself as a member of this generation is no small undertaking.
Marvin T. Brown, Ph.D teaches business and organizational ethics at the University of San Francisco and Saybrook University in San Francisco.
This book is the culmination of 30 years of teaching and writing on business and society from a communicative perspective. Visit workingethics.com for more information.
Adam Smith American Dream Atlantic trade banks biosphere citizen Citizens United civic civic conversations civic economy Civicism civic membership civilizing the economy civil war Commons corporate citizen corporations democracy disagreement economics of property economics of provision Egypt health care reform human dignity invisible hand John Locke libertarianism Libya living wage membership money moral equality ownership property property rights protection Scotland slavery Smith and slavery Smithian economics sports sustainability system of provision taxes tobacco trade