신자유주의에 대한 경제윤리적 성찰

Abstract

This study aims to reflect on the neoliberalistic economic paradigm from the ethical standpoint of Peter Ulrich, a Swiss economic ethician, and to propose socioeconomic tasks for Korean churches. In the 1990s, neoliberalism was introduced in Korea. As a result, the Korean society and economy shows the neoliberalistic characteristics: The government becomes smaller, public enterprises are privatized, taxes are reduced, the labor market becomes more flexible, labor policies are implemented hostile to the labor union, and economic restrictions are reduced. And these characteristics increase the power unbalance between capital and labor, furthermore widen the gap between rich and poor in Korea. According to Peter Ulrich, the root cause of problems which the neoliberalistic economic paradigm has brought, can be found in the fact that it pushes all economic subjects to compete against each other. He says that in the first place, we have to recognize how unrealistic the inevitability of the economic competition is to establish a human and ethical market economy. And then he proposes that the state should regulate the free market in which the inevitability of the economic competition is emphasized. In order to realize his proposal, it is necessary for the civil society to democratize thoroughly the state in Korea. Not only the civil society but also churches should be able to contribute to the democratization. The churches must actively establish new NGOs, and support existing NGOs financially to accomplish this mission.