(Claude Rochet) and the development of technologies, notably com-
munication, raises hopes that it is possible to achieve a ‘reconciled per-
formance’, i.e. a reconciliation between economic performance and
social cohesion.^17 Such a conception corresponds to an account of
social ethics that favours an ethics of mediation. The private and the
public interests, the personal and the common good has to be recon-
ciled for a life in dignity and the survival of the planet. In the Fang cul-
ture, my own culture in Cameroon, the concept of anyôs^18 is a concept
of mediation which reconciles conflicts and community life. It has its
roots in family life, especially the resolution of conflicts among chil-
dren of the same family. The question is how to make this concept
fruitful for economic and political relations in society, beyond families.
The society as the family can be considered as a body like the body of
a human being (as Paul, the Apostle, did it in the New Testament for
the Christian parish). The body is only healthy if it integrates the plu-
rality of the different parts of the body to a harmonious unity. This is
the meaning of the Common Good as the benchmark for individuals,
states, the private sector and the international community.
NOTES
(^1) Shashkin, Pavel : ‘Business Leadership and Social Responsibility in a Transition Country. A
Russian Orthodox Perspective’, in : Stückelberger, Christoph/Mugambi, J.N.K (eds), Responsible
Leadership. Global Perspectives, Nairobi : Acton Publishers, 2005, pp. 111-117. See also Chapter 26
in this volume.
(^2) Sachs, Jeffrey D., ‘Business Leadership and Sustainable Development. A Perspective of Corpo-
rate Social Responsibility’, in : op. cit., pp. 118-125. See also Chapter 23 in this volume.
(^3) In Cameroon today and according to the debt reduction conditions for economic boosting and
social justice, the government and the International Financial Organisation together have
responsibility for planning the governance of the states’ enterprises, see Touna, Richard, ‘Pour
sauver le point d’achèvement. Le plan fétiche de Abah Abah’, in : Le Messager, 11 August 2005.
(^4) See for example Stückelberger, Christoph, Global Trade Ethics, Geneva : WCC Publications,
2002, esp. 6.8 : Fair Trade, 6.18 : Trade and human rights ; Noll, Bernd, Wirtschafts- und
Unternehmensethik in der Marktwirtschaft, Stuttgart : Kohlhammer, 2002.
(^5) Shashkin, Pavel, op. cit., p. 113.
(^6) Concerning the question of the state’s social responsibility, Amartya Sen, for instance, thinks
that individual freedom is the main point of reference for the social responsibility of states. And
Claude Rochet refers to the common good as the condition of individual freedom, therefore, one
may conclude, the common good is part of the social responsibility of states.
(^7) For more details on this notion, see for example Höffe, Otfried, Art. ‘Bien commun’, in : Petit
Dictionnaire d’Ethique, Paris : Cerf, 1993, 25f.
(^8) Before Pareto, Adam Smith thought that the general equilibrium as Common Good is a result
of the invisible hand that conducts the economy.
(^9) See the ‘Opening Editorial Statement’, in : Finance & Common Good 6/7, 2001.
(^10) Rochet, Claude, Gouverner par le bien commun, Paris : Editions François-Xavier de Guibert, 2001.
(^11) Quéau, Philippe, ‘Du Bien Commun mondial à l’âge de l’information’, http ://2100.org/
conf_queau1.html (last accessed 2 August 2006), in particular the section on ‘Le marché et l’in-
térêt général : un besoin de régulation’ (The market and the general interest : a need of
regulation).
(^12) See note 9 above.
(^13) Engl. : Responsibilities of the Investors : Fundaments, limits and forms.
260 Responsible Leadership : Global Perspectives